Behavioral Targeting: The Problem of Privacy
Consumers need to be confident that the online advertising industry is handling their personal data correctly, said Tim Vanderhook, director of SpecificMedia. SpecificMedia works with 80 million unique users through its ad network, using demographic, contextual and behavioral targeting. If the way that tracking and cookie placement works is explained to the end users by the businesses themselves - advertisers, networks and publishers - in terms of price, this will not be an effective solution to the personal data problem. Vanderhuk prefers market education “at the highest level” by creating a coalition common to the industry and informing lawyers.
Behavioral Insider: Some industry representatives are concerned that ever more complex targeting can lead to “hysteria” about personal data. In your opinion, is there a real threat to consumers or the government that marketers monitor consumer behavior in more detail?
Tim Vanderhuk: I think this problem is too exaggerated. Along with the fact that the Internet makes it easy to collect data and direct more relevant advertisements to specific consumers, it’s just as easy to get out of this game, while maintaining its own anonymity. I would even say that traditional marketing channels make it even easier to transfer PII (Personally Identifying Information - information that allows to calculate personality) and Non-PII between different organizations, and to avoid this is much more difficult. Recently, I bought a new car and paid attention to what guarantees they offered to protect personal information, due to the fact that your personal data could be sold to other organizations, and it was not so easy to dodge this. The same thing happens when a consumer comes to take a loan. In short, although Specific Media can easily assemble Non-PII, consumers retain their anonymity and control their involvement at the click of a mouse. As for such a new sphere, it is quite impressive.
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BI: Does Specific Media do any special actions to allow consumers who are faced with its advertising to avoid their network hit?
Tim Vanderhuk: Specific Media is a member of the Network Advertising Initiative and allows consumers who are concerned that they are using behavioral targeting for the relevance of advertising to fully control the situation. We are doing everything possible so that consumers can control their online experience, and we have already found a better channel for this than the NAI. According to the IAB standards, we do not have such a mechanism that would be visible to the consumer directly in the advertisement itself, but any of them can easily find this information if they need it.
BI: Do you take any active steps to enlighten the users of your network that their behavior can be monitored?
Tim Vanderhuk: This is a very important topic to engage in tracking if you are working with an advertising network. Since we are in the middle between advertisers and publishers, we are not able to use the resources owned by publishers to educate consumers about our business. However, it cannot be said that we do nothing at all; The terms of service of our publishers state that they use third parties in the advertising process, and our terms of service clearly state how information is collected and used inside our organization. Again, I am not inclined to overestimate the benefits of self-regulation within the industry itself and the positive effect NAI could have in terms of educating consumers who would like to learn more about all this.
BI: Is it necessary to educate consumers about the nature of anonymous tracking, cookies, and what exactly the PT does? Or would it be too much - to require consumers to delve into all the nuances of targeting digital media?
Tim Vanderhuk: According to my personal observation, a very small percentage of consumers are interested in PM details, while the vast majority of online consumers who are under the influence of PM do not really understand what it is. To organize a public awareness campaign on this topic is extremely unprofitable today, because advertising inventory is very expensive, and consumers do not quite understand what cookies are. It is not easy to attract consumer attention to advertising in general, let alone talk about the global problems of business-to-business. It is much more important to create awareness at a higher level, in relation to such things as different rights, or to improve the industry’s ability to self-regulate by creating a coalition or a common pool of resources. These actions will really give greater protection to consumers in the long term.
BI: While the PT industry itself considers itself justified, many consumers, and even some advertisers, are still finding ways to work PTs partly sneaky or covered. Is it important for the PT to take into account such emotions and take organized actions in connection with them?
Tim Vanderhuk: I think that the industry has come a long way from its starting point to the moment when she was able to address issues of personal data protection. The fact remains that when consumers are online, they remain anonymous to ad networks that track online behavior. Most consumers are dissatisfied with this practice and call it nosy because companies that provide security when scanning for spyware also include cookies. As for advertisers, I have not yet found anyone who would refuse to deal with us for this reason. In fact, most of today's advertisers believe that it is too difficult to reach the target audience by effectively investing money, and therefore they feel that the future is in the PT and try to understand and deal with all the possibilities as much as possible.
BI: What do you think about the attitude of politicians to the subject of personal data in the digital age? Is there a serious threat from legislation, or will the industry be asked to give its own solution?
Tim Vanderhuk: I hope that NAI and its participants will be able to help politicians understand the technology and consumer protection measures that we have taken to self-regulation. I think that most politicians do not quite imagine the current situation with the personal data of online users, and I do not believe that some big law on the use of cookies may appear in the near future. I think that the main problem of user data today is considered spyware, and the main attention of lawyers is directed precisely in this direction.
This does not mean that we can, lean back, relax and think that in the future we are not expecting any problems. As an industry, we must use all possible channels to demonstrate the economic benefits that PT opens up for advertisers and publishers, while at the same time defending the user against abuse of their personal data.
Translation from English to:
blog.worldwebstudio.com
Behavioral Insider: Some industry representatives are concerned that ever more complex targeting can lead to “hysteria” about personal data. In your opinion, is there a real threat to consumers or the government that marketers monitor consumer behavior in more detail?
Tim Vanderhuk: I think this problem is too exaggerated. Along with the fact that the Internet makes it easy to collect data and direct more relevant advertisements to specific consumers, it’s just as easy to get out of this game, while maintaining its own anonymity. I would even say that traditional marketing channels make it even easier to transfer PII (Personally Identifying Information - information that allows to calculate personality) and Non-PII between different organizations, and to avoid this is much more difficult. Recently, I bought a new car and paid attention to what guarantees they offered to protect personal information, due to the fact that your personal data could be sold to other organizations, and it was not so easy to dodge this. The same thing happens when a consumer comes to take a loan. In short, although Specific Media can easily assemble Non-PII, consumers retain their anonymity and control their involvement at the click of a mouse. As for such a new sphere, it is quite impressive.
')
BI: Does Specific Media do any special actions to allow consumers who are faced with its advertising to avoid their network hit?
Tim Vanderhuk: Specific Media is a member of the Network Advertising Initiative and allows consumers who are concerned that they are using behavioral targeting for the relevance of advertising to fully control the situation. We are doing everything possible so that consumers can control their online experience, and we have already found a better channel for this than the NAI. According to the IAB standards, we do not have such a mechanism that would be visible to the consumer directly in the advertisement itself, but any of them can easily find this information if they need it.
BI: Do you take any active steps to enlighten the users of your network that their behavior can be monitored?
Tim Vanderhuk: This is a very important topic to engage in tracking if you are working with an advertising network. Since we are in the middle between advertisers and publishers, we are not able to use the resources owned by publishers to educate consumers about our business. However, it cannot be said that we do nothing at all; The terms of service of our publishers state that they use third parties in the advertising process, and our terms of service clearly state how information is collected and used inside our organization. Again, I am not inclined to overestimate the benefits of self-regulation within the industry itself and the positive effect NAI could have in terms of educating consumers who would like to learn more about all this.
BI: Is it necessary to educate consumers about the nature of anonymous tracking, cookies, and what exactly the PT does? Or would it be too much - to require consumers to delve into all the nuances of targeting digital media?
Tim Vanderhuk: According to my personal observation, a very small percentage of consumers are interested in PM details, while the vast majority of online consumers who are under the influence of PM do not really understand what it is. To organize a public awareness campaign on this topic is extremely unprofitable today, because advertising inventory is very expensive, and consumers do not quite understand what cookies are. It is not easy to attract consumer attention to advertising in general, let alone talk about the global problems of business-to-business. It is much more important to create awareness at a higher level, in relation to such things as different rights, or to improve the industry’s ability to self-regulate by creating a coalition or a common pool of resources. These actions will really give greater protection to consumers in the long term.
BI: While the PT industry itself considers itself justified, many consumers, and even some advertisers, are still finding ways to work PTs partly sneaky or covered. Is it important for the PT to take into account such emotions and take organized actions in connection with them?
Tim Vanderhuk: I think that the industry has come a long way from its starting point to the moment when she was able to address issues of personal data protection. The fact remains that when consumers are online, they remain anonymous to ad networks that track online behavior. Most consumers are dissatisfied with this practice and call it nosy because companies that provide security when scanning for spyware also include cookies. As for advertisers, I have not yet found anyone who would refuse to deal with us for this reason. In fact, most of today's advertisers believe that it is too difficult to reach the target audience by effectively investing money, and therefore they feel that the future is in the PT and try to understand and deal with all the possibilities as much as possible.
BI: What do you think about the attitude of politicians to the subject of personal data in the digital age? Is there a serious threat from legislation, or will the industry be asked to give its own solution?
Tim Vanderhuk: I hope that NAI and its participants will be able to help politicians understand the technology and consumer protection measures that we have taken to self-regulation. I think that most politicians do not quite imagine the current situation with the personal data of online users, and I do not believe that some big law on the use of cookies may appear in the near future. I think that the main problem of user data today is considered spyware, and the main attention of lawyers is directed precisely in this direction.
This does not mean that we can, lean back, relax and think that in the future we are not expecting any problems. As an industry, we must use all possible channels to demonstrate the economic benefits that PT opens up for advertisers and publishers, while at the same time defending the user against abuse of their personal data.
Translation from English to:
blog.worldwebstudio.com
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/30900/
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