European Privacy Officials investigate behavioral targeting & data mining

Just to place the privacy and online marketing debate in better perspective. It is appropriate and necessary for lawmakers and policymakers to examine and then address through rules the impact of new technologies on privacy. The Article 29 Working Party, the EU’s data protection review group, adopted as part of its 2008-2009 work plan to help ensure “data protection in relation to new technologies.” Among the areas they are now examining include: “search engines, on-line social networks (especially for children and teenagers), behavioural profiling, data mining, [and] digital broadcasting” (they are also focusing on ICANN and WHOIS). Direct Marketing is being reviewed as well.

Our point here is that the online industry has largely developed its system of data collection without user permission largely in the absence of thoughtful oversight that would ensure privacy. We believe the process underway in the EU will help address this issue in a meaningful way.

Randall Rothenberg of the IAB cries digital wolf

Mr. Rothenberg, head of the trade group that represents interactive marketers, is in a tizzy because privacy, consumer advocates, and some lawmakers in the U.S. and EU advocate public policies that would empower citizens and consumers to have greater control over their data. Groups such as my CDD also want online marketers to inform users about the range and intent of data collection taking place. Anyone who has studied the online ad industry and is following it should be disturbed by many of its developments and directions.

There needs to be a serious and honest debate about all this–and rules enacted to protect the public. As more people realize the dimensions of the interactive marketing system and its implications, there will be a raising protest. We expect that when the EU’s Article 29 Working Party, made up of data privacy commissioners, issues its report on behavioral targeting, it will be an informed and thoughtful discussion of what must be done. Given the henny-penny approach Mr. Rothenberg has embraced to fight off consumer protection safeguards, we assume he will ask Congress to formally break diplomatic relations with `old’ Europe!

This is a serious issue, with ramifications affecting consumer welfare in a number of areas, including information they receive about pharmaceutical products, personal finances (such as mortgages) and with our children and adolescents. As I’ve said, we recognize the vital importance of advertising for the online medium. But it must be transparent, respect privacy, and operate fairly. The global digital ecosystem must evolve, as much as possible, in the most open and democratic manner.

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One more request for those friendly Privacy Penguins–the AOL and Verizon deal, please

Dear Mr. or Ms. Penguin: It appears that Advertising.com’s new deal with Verizon brings behavioral and other data targeting to both its broadband and mobile platforms. Please explain what AOL’s recent acquisition Third Screen Media means with its April 14, 2008 release that says:

“Under the terms of the agreement, Verizon will leverage Platform-A’s sales capabilities for all of Verizon’s online inventory and a majority of Verizon’s mobile inventory. In addition, Platform-A will be the only sales organization that can represent Verizon’s inventory in the marketplace and guarantee placement within the Verizon network. All other sales partners are selling on a blind-network basis.

Verizon will continue to use Platform-A’s mobile ad serving platform, Third Screen Media, to manage the sale of its mobile web advertising. Third Screen Media’s advanced mobile advertising options include geographic, demographic, and content targeting, display, and sponsorship opportunities on Verizon Wireless’ portal, sections and article Web pages. The Verizon ad network is available to brands and agencies wishing to buy advertising on Verizon Wireless Mobile Web pages…”

We await, kind Privacy Penguin, for an answer. Thanks.

PS: Please include any details about the sharing of consumer data from either the broadband or mobile platforms.

Ad industry continues its focus on brain research, inc. meeting at Harvard U

[we have covered this topic in our book and on this blog. Here’s a story from the April 2008 issue of Media Magazine–excerpt]

The meeting, held in a lecture room of the Harvard Business School, was hosted by four leading research organizations that are trying to figure out how to apply the fledgling field of neuroscience to media and marketing research, and to find out whether biometric technologies that map the brain’s responses to media stimuli can be used the way Madison Avenue has used conventional forms of audience research like Nielsen’s TV ratings.

In fact, the field is so promising that Nielsen itself is jumping into it. The media research giant recently acquired NeuroFocus, a Cambridge, Mass.-based firm that is beginning to apply neuroscience to advertising research…What social research was to advertising and media 50 years ago, neurological research promises to be for the next half century…By mapping and understanding how the brain responds to advertising and media stimuli, he [Gerald Zaltman] suggested, researchers would have empirical knowledge about what kinds of advertising and media content were most engaging to consumers. Because the brain – and how it remembers things – is malleable, Zaltman says, it’s not possible to use a map of someone’s thought processes to create rules of thumb. Rather, researchers must use the information to understand how people “coauthor” messages. In other words, people don’t just passively absorb and process information, but react to it, append it and make the content their own. And depending on when and where they are exposed to it, the content could be processed very differently.”

source: Going Mental. Joe Mandese. Media Magazine. April 2008

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The Online Ad industry Must Respect & Protect Adolescent Privacy

Last week, a coalition of child advocacy, health and media groups asked the FTC to develop safeguards for digital marketing that would protect adolescent privacy online. This will be a major focus of the Center for Digital Democracy over the next year or so, building on our work during the 1990’s which led to the passage of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). COPPA helps protect the privacy of children under 13 years of age. Adolescents are now a principal focus of the online data collection and targeting system, a process which raises many ethical and health-related issues. We call on responsible online ad industry leaders to work with us to enact meaningful policies that protect adolescent privacy on websites, social networks, online gaming, etc. We are pleased that some major online ad companies have privately said to us that they recognize there is a problem. We will work with them and other responsible digital marketers. Policymakers from both congress and the FTC also recognize adolescent privacy is an important concern. It is a bi-partisan one as well (Senator John McCain was the co-sponsor of COPPA). The time to develop a meaningful framework that respects the autonomy of adolescents, but protects their privacy, is now