• by April 2, 2008

With the rise of social networking, we have seen a dramatic shift in the kind and amount of information generations growing-up wired are willing to share. Many of us are amazed by the amount of personal data people post on the Web for anyone to see. So what's next? How can people share even more than they do already - and will they? What if not only our online activities are tracked, but our offline activities as well?

- Sean Carton, author of The Dot.Bomb Survival Guide

OMG, I am so busted. That love bracelet Julie gave me last week after third-period virtual Home Ec class - the one she made me promise never to take off - had a GPS tracker embedded in it! I don't have a problem with the GPS system my parents use on me, the one that coordinates between transmitters in my car, my sneakers and my jacket; I seem to be able to stay one step ahead of that, but the bracelet caught me off guard.

Everything changed when Google made its deal with Wal-Mart and Amazon. They figured out how to make tons of money by linking personal GPS devices and advertising - well, duh! - I mean, I am so much more likely to make an impulse buy in the real world than online. Once they worked that out, Google made GPS devices so cheap and small that every parent started using them.

I was pretty young when that happened, but I remember all my teachers freaked out. The headlines were all we talked about at school. Articles like "Unlocking Real Versus Virtual Shopping Habits" opened our eyes. We all thought people felt more comfortable buying personal items in stores since they could do that without being tracked. Who would have guessed people prefer being tracked online to having to make eye contact in stores when making certain purchases?

Even my parents' RSS feed to their fridge screen got a story: "Link Between Advertising and Sales Finally Made." Once GPS devices started tracking if we actually sat in front of the TV when a commercial ran and then what we bought, it became clear what ads worked - and what ads didn't.

GPS is a part of life for me, like e-mail was for my parents. They recently told me that back in 2007 Facebook had to cancel a program called Beacon or something because of privacy complaints. It let friends know what other sites you visited online. Back then that was too much - but now some databases track everywhere I go online and off. I can't believe how everyone freaked on the old Facebook thing, but with storage so infinite - everyone's online movements are tracked, copied and stored - anyone can see what I like and don't. I hope the admissions department at Boston University doesn't notice how much time I spend online reading graphic novels. The government says the citizen content databases are a terrorism thing - still, I'm careful not to spend too much time on anything political online. It's kind of rough that my teacher knows what stories I read online on eBay news.

And so now I'm tracked. My parents can log in to see where I am 24/7. When they log in they are served ads for products based on where I spend my time. It sounds convenient, but I hate it when I'm rushing home and my mom checks in on me, seeing that I'm near the supermarket and texts me to pick up some milk. On the plus side, now when I go to the mall the 150-inch flat panels pick up my GPS and automatically list the stores I like and point me in the right direction.

It's not that bad - I'm used to it, but my sister's fiancé, Jon, had a fit when she said she wanted him to wear the new De Beers Smart Diamond™ wedding band. That's the one with GPS. It also tracks when you take it off and for how long. She wants it in the prenup.

Anyway, back to where I started. I told Julie that I could not go to the movies with her yesterday because I had to study. Well thanks to that bracelet she gave me, she knew that I was actually at the gym playing hoops instead. All things considered, I guess it could have been worse (much worse), but still - whatever happened to privacy?

Dave Rosner is director of innovation for Initiative. (dave.rosner@us.initiative.com)