We Know What You’re Doing Online
There is increasing controversy about new personalized ad technologies able to track your every online move. Unlike most personalized online advertising, this new technology, from companies like NebuAds in the United States, and Phorm in the UK, is based on the cable TV or phone company that provides your overall Web access – your Internet-service provider (“ISP”). There’s an article about this in today’s Wall Street Journal.
The reason such personally targeted ads seem so spooky to people is probably that most of us consider our ISP to be a neutral, uninvolved carrier of our Web browsing, email and other Internet-related activities. If your phone company were to call you with a special price on air travel to Los Angeles right after you have a phone conversation with your sister about visiting her in that city… Most people would just find that a bit too creepy.
Yes, I know that everyone needs more profit, and ISPs have to make a living, too. But if delivering targeted advertising like this is going to be so lucrative, then why wouldn’t an ISP simply split these extra profits with those individual users who choose to participate? Then people could make their own decisions about the level of privacy they want to enjoy. It’s astounding to me that businesses continue to think only in terms of one-size-fits-all marketing programs for their customers, EVEN when these very programs are based on treating different customers differently.
Does anyone else see the irony in this?
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Something like this happened to me today--either by back-tracking my IP address, or looking through my browser cookies, an Arizona newspaper Web site started throwing ads using the local college logo for my location in Utah.
I suppose it's "cool" on a certain level, but my gut reaction to it was not positive. It felt invasive.
As sales and marketing professionals, building trust is the biggest key these days, and these types of tactics do not engender trust. I almost certainly no longer trust the Web site I visited, and I would never consider using the services shown in the ad, simply out of principle.
-Steve
I definitely see the irony here Don and find it amazing that we're still having the same conversations we've had about phone numbers, email addresses and Web site navigation information. You and Martha have been writing about it for years: unless the user opts in and the messaging is targeted and relevant, consumers are not going to be receptive. This is just a new technology with the same old issues.