This post is a response to the question ["What practices make Google so controlling? What other companies do these?"] (@karsonyounger/week-10-questions-google-masters) posed by @karsonyounger. In my opinion, one of the most disturbing ways that Google targets people and subliminally controls their mindset is through the advertisements. I have always felt that it is a complete invasion of privacy, and a practice that is meant to take over people's opinions and try to almost force them to purchase a certain product. The most disturbing part of the ad process is the targeting. Google uses data from your searches and internet activity to specifically place advertisements in order to increase the chances and sort of persuade the user to purchase a product. I think that this is encroaching in people's privacy, although there is an understanding and agreement between Google and its' users that Google does have access to their data. I feel that the targeted ads are a bit of an overstep. Another new feature made through Apple uses tracking through your apps and interests in order to personalize your ads. I think that this feature is very intrusive, although Apple does ask for permission from the user in order to activate this feature. I think that this is also a very sort of scary feature for companies like Google and Apple to look through all your data and try to control what you see. I think another company that does this a ton is Facebook. When I scroll through my Facebook wall, I see many ads for things with information from my account such as places, shows, music, etc. This is very weird and intrusive to me because I feel it is a way to control what ads and products I see.
