While certain offers may result in cost savings and identification of useful new targets to spend money on, they can be annoying as we are inundated with unsolicited offers and information. Personal data may be provided to affiliate companies who also want to use the information to generate revenue. Visitors that click on advertisements are sent a cookie to analyze advertising effectiveness and to manage the relationship with affiliate sites.I rarely pay to travel to international destinations as I usually use miles earned to purchase plane tickets. This is a mutually beneficial relationship. Frequent flyer and frequent buyer programs reward consumers for their loyalty and encourage consumers to spend more or to make as many charges as possible on their credit card to earn miles, bonus points or other incentives. Loyalty and Club Cards Keep Track of Customer Purchasesįor example, supermarkets send customized coupons to their customers.

If I’d paid closer attention to Amazon’s suggestions, I wouldn’t have forgotten the printer cable which I needed to connect the printer to dad’s computer.

For example, on a recent printer purchase for my dad, saved me research time by letting me know that customers who purchased that printer also purchased specific ink cartridges. Companies such as track on line behavior and purchases to suggest related products that may be of interest. Demographic profiles and browsing history can be used to enhance a user’s on-site experience.The cookies build a demographic profile by keeping track of the browsing behavior and target interests of users trends and patterns are used to understand a customer’s purchase behavior and habits and to respond accordingly. “Cookies” are small pieces of information sent by a web server to a web browser, to enable the server to collect information. Tracking for marketing purposes is a double-edged sword with both pros and cons for the consumer. Food and drug recalls from loyalty card purchases have saved lives and prevented spread of contamination in cases of tainted medications and foods. Tracking of food and drug purchases have been instrumental in determining the cause of health outbreaks as well as serving as a means to notify pertinent parties.Tracking can be critical for consumer safety when it becomes necessary to notify consumers regarding defective products such as car seats, toys or cars.Tracking can provide an important consumer benefit. Card issuers, affiliate businesses, individuals, lawyers, and law enforcement can get access to this information and it can be used for or against us in multiple ways. We create these footprints with social media and from technologies such as credit cards, GPS systems, car computers, internet surfing, loyalty cards and RFID systems (Radio frequency identification that transmits the identity of an object or person wirelessly using radio waves). It’s difficult to avoid leaving digital footprints

Internet privacy pro con