Television, media, the internet, GPS tracking...
There is a dark side to Market Research, and it is the use of surveys and popularity in a market to market to people things that might actually hurt them. The internet is for certain one of those tools in marketing to people through their face books and social media accounts, yet the consumer does not know that they are becoming, "the product". Many people are also losing their privacy rights by even succumbing to the marketing tactics of social media and the internet. In marketing research we use the people and what they want to determine what to sell and market. The internet can now do this in secret. This secret activity could be considered the dark side to marketing. I have seen this in my own social media efforts, If I even simply view a certain website I will see the exact website or product appear in my social media feed. I feel that consumers and internet users should have some rights as to how to protect their private information and locations we visit. Now, there is the option to limit your GPS settings to let a website or company know of your locations; yet there is a large amount of the population that still does not know how to use these settings and put them into place. Hopefully consumers will become more aware of how we are being used to market ourselves through tracking and internet use.
