TOW 28: When Your Data Wanders to Places You’ve Never Been

Did the thought ever cross your mind that the short surveys or questionnaires you fill out are being sent to numerous third party companies? Well this is what happens when you answer personal questions; your personal data will be sent out to companies you have never ever heard of. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia suggested a policy that he calls Do Not Track which would allow computer users to turn on settings to prevent their personal information from being sent to third parties. However this policy does not protect the details that companies have gotten of thousands of American adults.

This article comes from The New York Times and is written by Natasha Singer.

This article is significant in context. This article sheds light on the many ads that bombard our Internets about filling out a simple questionnaire in order to win an extravagant prize or the seemingly harmless act of filling in private information while paying for online merchandise. The information that people had believed to be useless or did not think twice about is coming back to haunt them. For example, one woman took an interest in multiple sclerosis and she suddenly began to receive pamphlets about the illness and began to be associated with the disease.

The purpose of this article was to tell of the far-reaching effects of disclosing information. Even something as small as signing up to receive emails from a favorite store can link a person with his private information, which can be shared. This article also told of some attempts at progressive measures, as shown through Rockefeller's Do Not Track policy. 

The audience of this article was the general public, but especially those that utilize the Internet frequently. This article serves as a warning to those to be more careful about the information they choose to disclose, or the topics they choose to search. 

The rhetorical device of tone was used in this passage. Singer utilized a more casual and conversational tone in this article, as opposed to a very serious or urgent one. The reasoning behind using such a tone may be as this information may come off as bit of a shock (it did to me), she lessens the blow a bit by adding the measures that are in the process of being taken. If she utilized a tone that sounded very serious, this information would come off as an even bigger issue.

The purpose of this article was achieved. Singer was able to warn readers about the effects of disclosing information on the Internet, while preventing total commotion and shock by including the steps that are being taken to stop the disclosure of information.