Preface
In the Fall of 2022 I was a highschool senior dual-enrolling at the University of Mississippi. Knowing that
I didn't particularly enjoy writing, I decided to take my two writing prerequisites (WRIT 101 & 102) before my
freshman year at the same institution. My WRIT 101 professor, the great Trey Bagwell, gave me an invaluable piece
of advise which is why this page exists today.
He would always say, "Make writing work for you." He knew that his class was full of diverse majors and
really believed in the power of writing as a form of thought. The following semester I had the opportunity to
enact his advise. For the final assignment of WRIT 102, we were tasked to write a traditional research paper.
I decided to choose a topic that I felt passionate about and was become a major part of my field, data privacy.
After writing the paper, my professor encouraged me to submit it to the University of Mississippi's Undergraduate
Research journal, and after a year's delay, I was finally accepted, peer reviewed, and published.
Abstract
With the recent rise of a new digital age, many people are ditching more traditional methods of performing everyday tasks and replacing them with free and convenient online services. But as the saying goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and that sentiment holds true in terms of online services as well. Consumers pay for these online services with something much more valuable than money — their personal data. This paper explores how companies and governments present consumers with targeted advertisements, shows how targeted advertisements are inherently manipulative, and gives an example of one government and one company using this technology to influence the behavior of its target demographics. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ethical implications of the research, states its limitations, proposes possible solutions by providing contextual information, and concludes by arguing that the only way to change this behavior would be through legislative measures.