I am not sure anything has changed our lives as much as the Internet. Maybe the Industrial Revolution, where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport had a profound effect on our culture could be considered, but that would be it, I think.

Now as I write this, remember I have an iPhone, and I now have an iPad and I use them—all the time. One day I visited a retailer’s website looking for a carrier case for my iPad. I didn’t buy anything there, and I didn’t even put anything in the shopping cart. I just looked around. Shortly thereafter I received an email asking if I was interested in reviewing certain products and accessories that were similar to the ones I browsed. I didn’t give my email, or any information about my interests, but they sure had it.

If you read this column, you know I like to predict the future sometimes. The experience with this retailer made me stop and think. Where is the Internet going?

It’s true all of us love to gather information on the Internet. We use search engines like Google and Bing daily. We even share personal information about ourselves on Facebook or LinkedIn.  Along with my retailer, sites like Amazon store what they learn about our habits and now send us ideas for new products and services based on these profiles. We think we are out searching to find out information, but the trick is starting to be on us—the companies we are searching are searching us.

It’s called “patterning.” Software mines the data they pull informing companies which sites users visit, how often, and even with whom they communicate. So in essence, we are providing information to people we don’t know. The Internet may be fast turning from a useful tool for us as individuals to a target marketing system for companies to sell products and services. It makes me think we may have to change the two letters “In” to three letters “Out”, privacy being a thing of the past.

So what should we do? Not use the Internet at all? We all know that is not possible in this digital world.  Today the Internet is part of our email delivery, our use of smartphones, even our televisions in many cases. So the use of the Internet is now a fact of life. I think the only thing we can do is be aware of what is happening (think of the privacy issues Facebook recently faced) and more importantly, what could happen. As the software for patterning matures, the ability to profile an individual with uncanny visibility becomes a real possibility. And if that doesn’t scare you a bit, it should.

I was just at a Collector’s Conference in Hawaii. I go every year. This year I sat next to a man from Russia and as the panel talked about how difficult it was to keep track of folks who move around, he mentioned to me in Russia they don’t have that problem. If you move, you have to register your move with the government.  And if you owe money, they know where you live and they might come knocking on your door. They have information on you at all times. Do you see any similarities?

I have said it with emails, I have said it with social networking, and now I am saying it with just general use of the Internet: Be careful and very comfortable with where you visit and what you share. Because searching the Internet is becoming more and more like searching through a mirror.

Until next time,

Harry

Harry Stephens is President/CEO, and founder of DATAMATX, one of the nation’s largest privately held, full-service providers of printed and electronic billing solutions. As an advocate for business mailers across the country, Stephens is actively involved in several postal trade associations.  He serves on the Executive Board of the Greater Atlanta Postal Customer Council,  Board Member of the National Postal Policy Council (NPPC), Member of Major Mailers Association(MMA), and member of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service .  He is also president of the Imaging Network Group (INg), an association for Print/Mail Service Bureaus.  As an expert on high-volume print and mail, he has frequently been asked to speak to various USPS groups, including the Board of Governors, about postal reform and other issues affecting business mailers.  Find DATAMATX at http://www.datamatx.com.