BBC World Service Online

In the Balance

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Money

The biggest financial stories and why they matter to us all.

In The Balance

In the Balance: A Big Brother World?

13/04/2013

A Big Brother World?

BBC World Service - In the Balance, A Big Brother World?

Jamie Robertson and his guests discuss whether companies know too much about us. And Colm O'Regan considers his attractiveness to advertisers.

Jamie Robertson and his guests look at what companies know about you, and ask: do they know too much? Every time you go online and buy anything from wrapping paper to a Rolls Royce, or send an email or ask a question about, say, the population of Botswana or the height of the Niagara Falls, the information is stored. So who then uses it and why  - to target you with advertising? - or with something more sinister?  Three experts give us their views on whether we should be worried, and they are the lawyer Chris Watson, Partner and Head of the Telecoms team at CMS Cameron McKenna; Matthew Heath, Chief Strategy Officer at LIDA, the digital and direct marketing agency; and Michal Kosinski of the Psychometrics Centre at Cambridge University.  And in their midst we find Colm O'Regan musing on his attractiveness to advertisers.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

In the Balance

A Big Brother World?

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service