You buy a pack of gum about every two weeks. Since you buy it with your cash card, everyone in the sweets industry has your name on their frequent-buyers list. Ten days after your most recent purchase, you log onto your computer and you have e-mail from Wrigley’s and Bubblicious – coupons, with a button – click here for gum delivery. You have become a habit. It may not seem that bad, heck, it might even seem like they are providing a service. Project this over the immense number of goods we use in our lives, and it becomes immediately scarier.
Predictor: Hall, Justin Allyn
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 online essay, Justin Hall makes the following statement: ”As citizens of the future online world, we must all be on our guard against targeted advertising. Touted in industry circles as the greatest potential use of networked computers, advertisers are practically drooling to someday monitor our consumption to best target their pitches to our needs … You buy a pack of gum about every two weeks. Since you buy it with your cash card, everyone in the sweets industry has your name on their frequent-buyers list. Ten days after your most recent purchase, you log onto your computer and you have e-mail from Wrigley’s and Bubblicious – coupons, with a button – click here for gum delivery. You have become a habit. It may not seem that bad, heck, it might even seem like they are providing a service. Project this over the immense number of goods we use in our lives, and it becomes immediately scarier.”
Biography:Justin Hall worked briefly at Wired in 1994, during a sabbatical from his college days at Swarthmore. He started his own irreverent e-zine, covering diverse topics and providing links all over the Web. He later worked for ZDTV and Games.com and as a freelance journalist. (Advocate/Voice of the People.)
Date of prediction: July 23, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Advertising/PR
Name of publication: Links.net
Title, headline, chapter name: I Am Not My Habits: On Our Guard Against Targeted Advertising
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.links.net/dox/tech/targad.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Goodrich, Barbara J.