Retargeting Ads

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/technology/30adstalk.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Recently, in one of my advertising classes, we were asked to read the above article regarding retargeting ads.  I found the article to be pretty interesting.  Retargeting or remarketing is when a person visits some type of site and looks at a product (such as searching shoes on Zappos like the lady in the article) and "when that person or someone using the same computer, visits another site, the advertising system creates an ad for that very" item.  When you visit a site, your computer exchanges a small file called a cookie with the web, which is why specific information, which could cause the paranoid behavior, "follows" you around.  As a frequent user of the internet, especially Facebook, I have noticed that the ads on my pages are almost all related to me in some way.  I never really stopped to think why or how; I guess that is just another example of my generation and technology.  To some, this tracking of your previously visited sites can be a bit creepy.  To me though, I just see it as a regular addition to the internet.  Some sites can remember my login information and take me directly to my home page - how is this use of remarketing any different?  I do not think that when I login to my homepage and see ads for my school or about the recent tornado in Dallas that I am necessarily being watched.  But if companies or the government take advantage of this use of tracking where people have surfed, then there will be problems.  As of right now, I don't mind cookies one bit.