M-Commerce, whatever happened to privacy?

Many of you may not know what “M-Commerce” means but in a nut shell what I understand of it is buying something through your phone like when you buy books, clothes or products from sites such as E-bay and Amazon. BUT it’s not just that! I’ve been learning about it in class and from 1G (the much loved 088 phones) to the new and upcoming 4G the wireless accessibility options are becoming massive for M-commerce.

How many of you out there have ever bought something on your phone, I know I have. One in five people in the US are interested in buying through text messages!

Whatever happened to a good old non-traceable cash sale? Where did our privacy rights go? Everything you do online whether on your phone or on a computer is tracked and saved as data on a database of the websites you’ve visited. Details such as location even contact details can be generated from clicking into a website. You know all those spam messages you get, they’re there as a result of your web-surfing. For example, at the minute I’m job searching and every spam mail these days is from some “HR person” saying they have the perfect job for me. Now with m-commerce they have my phone details. Ever gotten an mms text advertising something from some random number? Has a local club, gym or shop text to advertise some sale or special offer? Well that’s m-commerce.

Now Amazon have adopted this “tracking” as a sales and marketing tool. Anyone that has an Amazon account will know that there will always be suggested purchases based around what you’ve bought before or the type of search you entered. Ingenious or freaky? I’m on the fence for this one. Sure it gives online shopping a personal feel but then you have to ask yourself will this new “fad” take over from real day to day, human to human interaction. Will these futuristic films prove true and the world becomes totally technology dependant? I think it’s on the way there already. There’s already advertising, sales and shopping through your phone. Soon there’ll be no more shops to go to, it will all be done online, and you won’t even have to leave your house. Second thoughts no longer on the fence, down with technology, I love “browsing the shops” :)