Online marketers want to track you–from click to click to “last ad” click

Microsoft and Google, along with many partners, are working to perfect a consumer tracking and analysis system so they can better figure out who gets to share in the growing online ad revenue pie. It’s called “engagement mapping.” Although if you are concerned about privacy, you might want to say, “let’s call the whole thing off.” Here’s an excerpt from the April 14, 2008 Ad Age article:

“The concept appears simple, but the technology is complex: raw log-file data, time-stamped and collected by ad-serving companies like Google’s DoubleClick and Microsoft’s Atlas, along with a short line of code known as a pixel hidden in web pages, keep a record of each time consumers enter or exit a web page, click on a link or ad and enter information in a search box or application. Those data are fed into software platforms designed by companies such as Atlas, Epic Advertising, Media Contacts and Starcom.

“It’s sort of like reading an advertising diary,” said Ben Winkler, VP-interactive media director at New York-based Ingenuity Media Group, which joined Atlas’ project earlier this year. “It’s like you opened a diary where someone wrote, ‘I saw three billboards, I heard a radio ad, saw a few banners ads, and searched through Google to find and buy the product.’ “

Rather than wait for a crisis to tell the advertising client something isn’t working, media buyers can rely on these data to identify when consumers had contact with the ads, even if it’s an hour, day or week later.

“We know the person saw ad No. 4 on Yahoo Finance an hour ago,” said David L. Smith, CEO at Mediasmith, which is participating in Atlas’ and DoubleClick’s tests with advertisers. “Embedded code in the pixels lets us track the pages and things they interact with on the site.”

source: New metrics give `credit where due.’ Laurie Sullivan. Ad Age. April 14, 2008 [sub may be required]

Market researchers tell FTC to give them exemption for consumer data mining

Among the comments filed at the FTC for its staff privacy principles proceeding was one submitted by CMOR (the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research). CMOR, whose motto is “shielding the profession” wants the FTC to make certain that any privacy policy protecting consumers doesn’t restrain the activities of its members. A huge infrastructure of online market research has emerged–tracking our online behaviors and attitudes. The trade group offer’s an incredible self-serving defense of their practices, all so they can push the boundaries of targeted digital marketing. Here are some excerpts from CMOR’s filing:

“…much of the FTC’s specific proposals for self-regulation of online behavioral tracking could have significant negative consequences for the survey and opinion research profession, and strangle many possible new methods of research – methods that could better serve consumer choice and privacy than current methods – before they’ve even been conceived…CMOR notes that research is a multi- million driver of the private economy – and that U.S. government agencies like the FTC are, as a group, the single largest purchaser/user of research from the survey and opinion research profession. CMOR also notes that online behavioral tracking could be a form of
research particularly well-suited to the needs of non-profit entities, political activists, and for-profit businesses that are small or serve niche markets and interests. These parties have an even greater need than most to drill down to small, difficult-to-pinpoint segments of the population. Such research could have profoundly positive benefits for consumers and citizens and such public good is worth preserving…As recently stated by Josh Chasin, Chief Research Officer for the research firm ComScore, researchers must “push the limits of data mining and data base integration and artificial intelligence, in the interest of deploying information technology to meet the needs of people. At the same time, it is incumbent upon us to zealously guard the privacy of the consumers whose lives we touch, even tangentially. I do not believe these two goals are paradoxical.”

CMOR and ComScore may try to convince the FTC to somehow believe that expanding the limits of data mining research will further privacy. But much of the research is about extending the power of micro-targeting in order to create new attitudes and behaviors in individuals (inc. children and adolescents). Researchers can’t be given a free pass to push the limits of data mining in the digital era.

Microsoft-Yahoo/Google-Yahoo M&A: More data about you for targeting

excerpt from Abbey Klaassen of Ad Age’s interview with media execs, including Augustine Fou, senior VP-digital strategy at MRM Worldwide and Nathan Woodman, VP-strategic development at Havas Digital:

MR. FOU: Yahoo has a lot more personal information through its other services for which you registered. So they can cross-target with demographic information … and because Google doesn’t have similar information, Yahoo actually has better proprietary data at this point in time…

MR. KILKES: The power of optimization is that you can test all that stuff. We’ve seen that Yahoo’s registration offering leads to much more engaged audiences vs. what we have see through, say, a Google gadget. That leads us to believe that combining registration data with behavioral is just narrowing the funnel a lot more efficiently for us.”

from: So Much Info, so Much to Test Out. Ad Age. Aril 14, 2008 [sub required]

girls goo movies germansoftware editing moviecollege movies sextitty free fuck moviesmovie porn stardbz movie 12software movie editingmovies wedding fucking Map

BT Watch: Social Networks & Behavorial Targeting: “people, not pages” are tracked

excerpt from interview with Andrew Monfried, founder and CEO of Lotame Solutions]: “One of the biggest challenges is that the industry is trying to apply standard behavioral targeting techniques to the robust arena of user-generated content and social media. Emphasis is still placed on contextual relevance when, in reality, that metric doesn’t take into account true behavior and consumer interests. People are commenting, uploading, posting, viewing videos, and using widgets. The key is to leverage this data in a way that will drive performance. Contextual relevancy doesn’t capture those verbs or actions….One of the most critical things moving forward is understanding that within social media, click-through rates aren’t the most accurate measurement of success. A truly engaged user is more valuable than a click… The industry will need to embrace new ad units as well as leverage behavioral targeting as a new way to distribute content…Our technology gathers tremendous amounts of data inherent to user-generated content, and we use this to build targeted and customizable audiences as well as provide monetization solutions. For example, if a brand wants to target consumers who only like The Grateful Dead, we build that exact audience for them… Lotame allows advertisers to touch people and not pages….

Social Networking Meets Behavioral Targeting. Anna Papadopoulos. clickz. March 26, 2008

Behavioral Targeting firm has assembled “140 million active online shopper profiles”

Behavioral Targeting watch

excerpt: “Behavioral targeting is set to reach $3.8 billion by 2011…one company is claiming to be the first online network that uses consumer purchase and browsing information to determine which ads they are presented with.

“Shopping behaviors associated with a cookie on a user’s machine provide information about their interests, and continuous modeling enables us to identify large populations with similar patterns of purchase behavior,” said aCerno CEO Tom Sperry.

aCerno, a wholly owned subsidiary of database marketing firm i-behavior, reports that it has accumulated 140 million active online shopper profiles. The data can in no way be linked to an individual but instead relies on unique cookie ID numbers placed on a user’s browser.” via BizReport.

“Behold aCerno — the only predictive targeting ad network that drives transactions, propels brand metrics, finds prospects who are in-market for your product or service, and predicts what they are interested in. Your best prospects are delivered flawlessly and efficiently to you.aCerno helps marketers motivate consumers by always putting the right message before their eyes when and where they’re receptive to your message.aCerno understands and capitalizes on the symbiosis among brands, retailers and consumers. Our predictive modeling gleans vital data from this ecosystem to target messages that pique interest and prompt the consumer reaction you seek. With aCerno, online advertising unearths greater market potential by delivering predisposed prospects…aCerno creates custom audiences from this data to suit your brand’s particular needs. Whether your objective requires targeting based on pure product- and shopping-based behaviors, or on more traditional demographics and psychographics – or any combination of them all, aCerno offers unmatched flexibility in built-to-suit audience development.” from: aCerno

More on aCerno, via today’s Clickz. article [excerpt]

aCerno, has been in stealth mode for nearly four years. It collects…information from an association of over 375 major multichannel retailers’ Web sites (that aren’t identified to one another), representing 140 million shoppers. The information is completely private and tagged only with an ID…ACerno clients’ best prospects are identified with modeling and profiling techniques, finding users who look most similar to their best customers. Once these high-value prospects are recognized, aCerno uses its massive advertising network to deliver targeted advertising messages directly to them…The company’s extensive network of high-quality Web sites, publishers, and portals is targeted exclusively at the cookie level with banner ads and rich media to achieve maximum reach within the target audience. The network reaches over 95 percent of the Internet population with more than 80 percent of the impressions served into sites on comScore’s Top 500.

This is predictive analysis; scoring million of cookies against hundreds of variables to create models.”

Newspaper industry tracking user “behavior” without real disclosure, consent

quadrantOne is a consortium of 26 newspaper companies that enable advertisers to, as its release notes, “for the first time, to buy hundreds of well-established and trusted online newspaper and broadcasting sites by placing a single order.” quadrantOne [attention antitrust types!] is jointly owned by Tribune, Gannett, Hearst, and the New York Times.

On Friday, the Newspaper Association of America filed comments at the FTC arguing that the agency’s proposed privacy principles to protect consumers could be a violation of the First Amendment. But perhaps the NAA–and certainly quadrantOne and its members–can explain what the consortium means what it tells potential advertisers that they can be given “[A]ccess to sophisticated audience targeting by context, behavior and demographics.” quadrantOne has, according to its website: “Total number of unique users: Close to 50 Million.”

The newspaper industry should be scrupulously candid about all its data collection and targeting. While we support newspaper efforts to build up online ad revenues, they should do so in the most ethical manner. Embracing meaningful privacy policies that fully disclose prior to collection, and ensuring affirmative user consent, must be incorporated into our concept of liberty and freedom in the digital democracy era.

Google, Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and Time Warner in coalition to fight state-based public interest and consumer protection issues

Scratch a media conglomerate–old or new–and you reveal a political agenda that is all about the aggrandizement of power–consumer and data privacy be damned. Here’s are excerpts from a Kate Kaye story on the roll-out of the state-based coalition designed to protect the interests of the online advertising industry.

From California to Utah to New York, state legislators regularly propose laws with major implications for the online ad industry. A once-loose collective of companies including Google, Yahoo, AOL and eBay finally incorporated officially this year after four years of collaborating to influence state policy.

The most recent target of the State Privacy and Security Coalition’s efforts is New York Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, sponsor of a bill preventing third parties from using sensitive personally identifiable information for behavioral ad targeting.

The coalition doesn’t like it. A missive sent to the legislator April 7 by the coalition’s lead counsel calls the bill “unnecessary,” and “most likely unconstitutional.”…Jim Halpert, partner in the communications, e-commerce and privacy practice at law firm DLA Piper, penned that letter. As head counsel for the coalition, he also recently facilitated its incorporation.

“There’s much more state activity than federal activity,” said Halpert. Not only does that create more laws or proposed laws to deal with; the state process moves much faster.

According to Halpert, the coalition also includes Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and organizations such as the Internet Alliance and tech trade association AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association. With Halpert at the helm, coalition members conduct weekly phone calls, and sometimes meet in-person with other members or with state lawmakers to influence legislation involving online privacy and data security, Internet advertising, online child safety, content liability, spam, spyware, and taxation…

“We see the coalition’s role as helping state legislatures understand the technology policy area. I think we all recognize the technology environment can be complicated,” said Adam Kovacevich, Google’s senior manager, global communications and public affairs. Google Director of State Public Policy John Burchett is the firm’s primary liaison to the coalition.”

source: Google, AOL and others make state policy coalition official. Kate Kaye. clickz.com. April 14, 2008

ValueClick touts its "Preditive…Behavioral Targeting" Clout

excerpt: VALUECLICK MEDIA SAID… it has built an applications platform to offer advertisers behavioral targeting based on predictive analytics… By focusing on targeting visitors rather than pages, ValueClick says it can serve more relevant ads that appeal to each Web site visitor based on past behavior to provide higher click-through and conversion rates.

ValueClick’s platform relies on three algorithms: behavioral targeting, recommendations and ad server real-time selections, according to Joshua Koran, VP of targeting and optimization at ValueClick, which supports media inventory on more than 13,000 sites. “Cookies stored on visitors’ computers collect data and build search profiles containing one or more facts,” he said.

The cookies collect data on Web site visits, ad interactions, searching, product comparisons, product purchases, and third-party data fed into algorithms that predict behavioral trends, storing the information in ValueClick servers. Koran says the predictive analytics platform will cluster the data collected from searches and clicks in thousands of categories, such as mobile, travel and finance.

The predictive algorithms in the behavioral targeting application will store the profile as long as the cookie comes back to the server with more data. It will process hundreds of millions of profiles tied to …cookies on billions of events daily. The algorithm built into the application will determine when the information is no longer useful.”

interracial movies dogfartlatest releases movie dvdmovies femdom portбlmovies free porn brazilianfree movies length porno fullmovies porn free homepiss free moviesfree movies sex sample Map

CDD and USPIRG File Comments on

Although not yet on the FTC website, CDD/USPIRG filed comments in the proceeding. They are available here. Our submission makes clear the commission must immediately enact policies to protect consumers and the public, especially to protect their health/medical, financial and family information. It provides, I hope, a very good overview and rich detail on the latest digital marketing developments that threaten privacy and consumer autonomy.

With european privacy regulators also now looking into behavioral targeting and interactive marketing, there is growing awareness on both sides of the Atlantic about these powerful privacy threats. Hold on IAB, wherever you are, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

gambling merchant p account credit cardand for address gamble proctorpathological linked abilify gambling tomcilwain gamble aaroncoupons 30 protor gamble 12gambling day cruise 1350 court texas gamble districtfarm ohio gamble payment 2006 steve Map

Newspaper lobby [NAA] trying to hide behind First Amendment as its members threaten privacy via behavioral targeting

That’s the headline from what the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) is basically saying to the FTC, in comments filed for the agency’s online advertising and consumer privacy proceeding. We don’t have time this weekend to respond in full to such absurd claims. All we want to say is that the NAA is the same group which has campaigned for FCC media deregulation and consolidation policies. We believe the NAA’s short-sighted and self-serving efforts has contributed to the newspaper biz’s meltdown.

Any reasonable person should see that giving readers and users [hello newspapers losing audience] control over their data and information is not a First Amendment conflict. The news media that end up on the wrong side of the privacy debate will further lose readers and supporters. We will be back to this topic next week. By the way, the FTC has not yet put up the CDD and USPIRG comments. But they are available (along with the coalition of children’s health and advocacy group filing) at:www.democraticmedia.org