The regulations vary across the country, but you would be surprised to learn some of the regulations that employers have to follow that regular people have no idea about. Some employers use a outside company to perform background checks for them, but we do it ourselves to make sure we know what kind of people we are hiring. Most of the young people that work for us are exactly what you would expect a young person to be today, their social media accounts are filled with the usual things like posts about relationships, family, graduations, and their interests.
So far we haven't ever had to report anyone for anything on their social media, and most of them are good kids that just want to live a normal life. The only issue I've ever had with my employees was when there was a young male that was harassing the female employees and we had to get rid of him, but aside from that, most of them have been great to be around.
Regarding advertising online, companies have always used ads to attract their target demographic, it was usually through tv and radio commercials and magazines, back then, if you were watching a show aimed at adults you would get ads about cigarettes and alcohol, so targeted ads is nothing new, but the internet changed how advertisers reach potential customers.
I'm sure you're aware of how internet cookies are used right? Well, If you aren't, the simplest explanation is that they are small text files that websites store on your device to remember information about you and your browsing activity. They say that the main purpose is to help to personalize your online experience and make websites more user-friendly, and while that is part of their function, most websites use the information gathered to generate ads targeting their interests by specifically using their browsing history to get that information.
The truth is that everything you do online is tracked and monitored in one way or another, regardless of what device you are using, even if companies and the Gov won't admit it, people will say that it's in the interest of national security, and for the most part it is, by monitoring everybody you can look for specific behavior and conversations online to help prevent possible attacks from happening, that's also one of the reasons why there are so many cameras in our society now, to make sure that people stay safe.
I know that most websites and forums log your I.P. address when you create a account, as well as every time you make a post, I'm not sure about this forum because it's using outdated tech, but I do know that this forum, and almost every website online, is plagued by web crawling bots. Most of the bots are just gathering data for simple reasons like Google search results, archiving web pages for the internet archive, browsing habits, and to target specific criteria to report back to companies for various purposes. However, there are web crawling bots that are sent out by bad people as well, with the purpose of gathering information that can be used to harm somebody, it can be something simple like looking for email addresses to spam you, or they can actually ruin your life depending on what they find out about you. As I told you before, you have no idea just how much information somebody can find out about you just from knowing your email address.
Look at this forum for example, while we do share personal stories about our lives with each other here, we are still just a username, and remain anonymous on some level unless we choose to share sensitive information with another person by PM, and even then you can't be sure how secure it is. When I got here I posted some photos of the decorations in my yard, and I should have edited the number of my house out of the photos but I didn't remember to, although that information isn't useful unless somebody knows my location. Why do you think I haven't ever mentioned the name of my restaurant, or my location? While I know that you, Mike, and Andy are good decent people, I also know that the bots are gathering information, and there are also people that visit the forum and don't ever post, they just hang around. Of course, that doesn't mean that they are going to actually do anything to harm somebody, but you don't know what their intentions are.
There are ways to be online and not be tracked, but even they have flaws that can be exploited, so nothing online is really secure. I use a variety of different tools when I watch movies, or download music online to cover my tracks. The internet was created as a free and open resource for information, so the way I look at it is that there is nothing wrong with downloading copyrighted material for your own personal use. Some people might say there is a ethical debate to be had about that, but everybody does it, I know that Andy does, so what are they going to do about it? They can't go after everybody for it.
If you think that what I said so far has been scary, it's nothing compared to the information about you that is already out there online that is publicly available for anyone to access. If you don't believe me then just go Google your own name, or home phone number or address, or the information of a family member, and you will be shocked at what you come across. That information is there waiting for somebody to use, you can contact the websites to request to have the information removed, some of them will ignore you, and some will do it, but it's a unbelievably long and unnecessarily complicated process.
The real question has now become does privacy still exist? Is giving up our rights to privacy a fair trade just so everybody can be connected and monitored in a imaginary online world? The short answer is no, but I guess that greatly depends on your personal views. The world is far scarier than it used to be, and while the internet is a amazing tool that can be used to further humanity to new levels, it can be, and unfortunately is, often used for nefarious reasons, and it shows you the dark side of humanity and how sick some people can be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY