Category: European Commission

The IAB’s Targeting/Data Collection Glossary: Oh, What a Tangled Privacy Threatened Web They Weave [Annals of Geo. Orwell meets Madison Ave.]

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has released for public comment a telling document that illustrates why Congress and the FTC need to develop some rules to protect consumers.  Take a look at the definitions the IAB has embraced on targeting and data collection–and ask yourself.  Based on what they say, can this really be–as the IAB claims–non personal information? Here are some of the definitions from the Networks & Exchanges Quality Assurance Guidelines [Feb. 2010]:

*Audience Targeting:A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to visitors based on their shared behavioral, demographic, geographic and/or technographic attributes.  Audience targeting uses anonymous, non-PII data.

*Behavioral Targeting:  Using previous online user activity (e.g., pages visited, content viewed, searches, clicks and purchases) to generate a segment which is used to match advertising creative to users (sometimes also called Behavioral Profiling, Interest-based Advertising, or online behavioral advertising).  Behavioral targeting uses anonymous, non-PII data.

*Attribute – A single piece of information known about a user and stored in a behavioral profile which may be used to match ad content to users.  Attributes consist of demographic information (e.g., age, gender, geographical location), segment or cluster information (e.g., auto enthusiast), and retargeting information (e.g., visited Site X two days ago).  Segment or cluster information is derived from the user’s prior online activities (e.g., pages visited, content viewed, searches made and clicking and purchasing behaviors).  Generally, this is anonymous data (non-PII).

*Behavioral Event – A user-initiated action which may include, but not limited to: searches, content views, clicks, purchases, form-based information and other interactions.  Behavioral events are anonymous and do not include personally identifiable information (PII).

*Clickstream Data – A Clickstream is the recording of what a computer user clicks on while web browsing.  As the user clicks anywhere in the webpage or application, the action is logged on a client or inside the web server, as well as possibly the web browser and ad servers.  Clickstream data analysis can be used to create a user
profile that aids in understanding the types of people that visit a company’s website, or predict whether a customer is likely to purchase from an e-commerce website.

*Cookie – A small text file sent by a website’s server to be stored on the user’s web- enabled device that is returned unchanged by the user’s device to the server on subsequent interactions.  The cookie enables the website domain to associate data with that device and distinguish requests from different devices.  Cookies often store behavioral information.

*Cross-site Advertiser Analytics – Software or services that allow an advertiser to optimize and audit the delivery of creative content on pre-bought publisher inventory.  Data can range from numbers of pages visited, to content visited, to purchases made by a particular user.  Such data is used to surmise future habits of user or best placement for a particular advertiser based on success.


*Deep Packet Inspection – A form of computer network packet filtering that examines the data and/or header part of a packet as it passes an inspection point. In the context of online advertising, it is used to collect data, typically through an Internet Service Provider, which can be used to display targeted advertising to users based on previous web activity.

* Retargeting (or re-targeting) – The use of a pixel tag or other code to enable a third-party to recognize particular users outside of the domain from which the activity
was collected. See Creative Retargeting, Site Retargeting.

*Creative Retargeting:  A method that enables advertisers to show an ad specifically to visitors that previously were exposed to or interacted with the advertisers’ creative.

*Unique User – An individual user that has interacted with online content, which is smaller than or equal to the number of cookies observed.  The number of unique users to a website is usually an estimate.  

Yahoo to Pharma Marketers: Come `Engage’ & Target Health Consumers Online


As my CDD has explained to both the FDA and FTC, the digital marketing of drugs and health information require serious privacy and consumer protection safeguards.  What may be acceptable when selling cars & travel online using the online ad tool-set is not appropriate when transferred wholesale to such sensitive categories as drugs.  Here’s an excerpt [pdf] from Yahoo!s promotional piece entitled “Social Media:  Pharmaceutical Marketing in the Age of Engagement.”

Social media marketing is a compelling opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to reach their most influential audience. Recent research conducted by Manhattan-based Hall and Partners Healthcare found that online health consumers are hyper-engaged and leverage almost twice as many information sources

to learn about disease states and prescriptions than the average consumer… For every creator of content – a physician writing a blog, for example – there are

roughly 10 synthesizers actively commenting, sharing, rating and reacting. For each group of synthesizers, roughly 100 consumers read, watch, listen and enjoy

while participating only occasionally. All three of these groups have a valid place within the community. event forms. Just as we have built communities of physicians who speak openly with each other about our products, we have an opportunity to nurture and learn from consumer communities as well. First, we must listen with intent…Analyzing what you hear can reveal a gap in consumer awareness. What’s more, a number of tools have emerged to help consolidate the vast array of social media input, from free online evaluators like Intelliseek, to sophisticated and customized tracking services like Cymfony. Once marketers have a firm grasp on the language, attitudes, brand perceptions and key COLs in their consumer community, pharmaceutical company participation can range from targeted media placement to integration and empowerment. All approaches are open to branded or unbranded programs…

Facebook: `Social identity revolutionises ads’

That’s the headline on a Facebook executive’s presentation at Social Media World Forum in London.  As reported by StrategyEye, “[S]ocial network profile identities “fundamentally change” the relationship between online marketers and consumers, according to Facebook EMEA strategy and planning head Trevor Johnson. Tailoring marketing campaigns to people rather than IP addresses or other anonymous online identities provides far better ways of reaching consumers and targeting ads, says Johnson.”  The story says Johnson explained “that Facebook ads which use social context produce a 25% increase in user actions and a 68% increase in “brand lift”. He also says that posts published by brands and firms are almost seven times more likely to create a user action than paid advertising on the site.”

A Glimpse Under the Data Collection `Hood’: Behavioral, Social Graph, Ad Exchanges, Ad Optimization


As CDD explained to the FTC and data protection commissioners, advances in online ad data collection, selling and targeting raise significant privacy concerns. This rapidly evolving infrastructure of user data auctioning requires scrutiny and safeguards.  Here are some excerpts from jobs in the sector, which gives one a glimpse of what’s going on.

Director of Agency Development- NYC – eXelate

About eXelate

The eXelate Targeting eXchange is the world’s first and largest open marketplace for behavioral targeting data. Through participation on the eXchange, data buyers build an instant behavioral targeting function and optimize their campaign delivery, while data sellers gain insight on their audience, control over their data distribution, and build a new privacy–friendly income stream. The eXchange includes over 40 top ad network/agency buyers and dozens of leading publishers, who deliver targeting data on more than 170 million unique users each month.

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Account Manager – NYC – Netmining…

Netmining is a global provider of behavioral marketing solutions that are proven to increase conversion rates across websites, online advertising, email programs and offline sales channels. With a real-time profiling engine that understands each individual’s interests and buying propensity, Netmining enables companies to deliver highly relevant and personalized interactions across the entire customer lifecycle.
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Senior Account Manager – Social Targeting Data – NYC – Media6degrees: About Us

We are the first online advertising firm built from the ground up specifically to leverage “social graph” data. The power of this data is captured by the phrase “birds of a feather flock together.”  We have mapped the social graph interactions of nearly 75 million US consumers and are the first company to offer “social targeting” which allows marketers to fully exploit the network value of every individual customer with whom they interact while also significantly improving response rates on new acquisition campaigns.

Our platform employs proprietary cookies to map the social graph. Our core data used to map the social graph has long been part of the standard Internet advertising protocols for trafficking advertisements and has been fully integrated with both Yahoo’s RightMedia platform as well as the DoubleClick Exchange and is accessible to any of the thousands of major marketers who advertise through these vehicles.

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Senior Account Executive (2 Jobs) – NYC, SF – TARGUSinfo: 

Its unique identification, verification, qualification and location services enable retailers, call-center operators, Web-based marketers, communication service providers and others to dramatically increase the quality of their services and the effectiveness of their marketing. A privately held company, TARGUSinfo is headquartered in Vienna, Va. For more information, visit www.TARGUSinfo.com.

With a focus on delivering measurable, predictable results in a online environment, TARGUSinfo is defining tomorrow’s marketing standards by delivering a display advertising targeting solution to advertising networks, interactive advertising agencies, and publishers.  We currently have a large cookie-based audience solution based on verified offline data assets.

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Optimization Consultant, Ad Exchange – NYC – Google

you will be responsible for working with buyers and sellers on the Ad Exchange to optimize their experience (ie. manage yield or drive return on marketing investment). You will be responsible for partnering closely with Product Management, Engineering, Sales, and Services to build models, develop new ones, apply customer specific data, and develop insights.

Those who gain access to our consumer data: “will be the new kingmakers”

As we have explained all along, the ability to collect and analyze data about us and our social networks is the “DNA” of contemporary advertising and marketing.  There is a very thoughtful piece in “Metrics Insider,“ and I hope you will look at this excerpt:

“The future of advertising is not about social, not about viral videos, not about mobile, not about any new medium or any new ad unit — but about data. Those who know what to do with this will be the new kingmakers, the new rulers of Madison Avenue — or the creators of a new Avenue of media…The critical component that makes this new world work is data — not simply general research data, but data about you. This goes far beyond just behavioral targeting, to your preferences, your interests, your actions — all of the signals you send as you move through the grand stage of life. The revelation is that this new world is no longer the far-off land on the horizon — we’ve hit the beach.”

 from:  Death Of The Impression/Rise Of The Data Economy.  Michael D. Andrews.  Mediapost.  February 18, 2010.

MicroHoo & Digital Data Consolidation: Despite DoJ okay, FTC Needs to Act and Protect Consumer Privacy

Today’s announcement that Microsoft and Yahoo have received clearance from the DoJ and EU to proceed with its partnership continues the global trend towards online marketing consolidation.  Given Google’s dominance in search, the Microsoft `helps save Yahoo deal’ creates what some hope will be more robust competition in the search market.  But the real issue with the deal is data privacy.  That’s why the Federal Trade Commission needs to dig into this new partnership and ensure consumer privacy is protected.

Facebook to Users: Don’t Expect Payment when You Give us Your Data. After all, users get “egotistical value”

At a discussion on social media in London last week on “Understanding Social Graph Optimisation,” [meaning how to better target and monetize users], one of the topics was whether users should be financially compensated when their data is harvested for commercial exploit (such as for marketing).  What did Facebook’s executive on the panel say?  According to one post covering the event, ”
Trevor Johnson, Head of Strategy and Planning, EMEA at Facebook made it clear that Facebook users get enough value back simply from the user experience gained by being on Facebook.  He described how users gain “egotistical value”.

Microsoft to Advertisers: “Behavioural targeting is transforming the capabilities of online advertising”

In a recent post, Microsoft extolled the virtues of using its behavioral targeting service profiling mobile phone users.  It explained that “campaigns can target individuals based on their online behaviour, including the sites that they visit, the actions they take and the terms they enter into search engines. In the US behavioural targeting on mobiles has already delivered increases in click-through rate of 215% for the fashion and beauty sector, 97% for airlines and 76% for auto advertisers.”

Google and the NSA: The search giant’s DC marketing office is looking to “generate and close sales to the Intelligence Community”

Google and other major companies want help from the NSA to help it  better defend against cyberattacks and commercial spying.  But is also illustrates a real problem: companies such as Google that gather extensive information on citizens everywhere, including in the US, are partnering with government agencies that have engaged in domestic spying.  Google really needs to create something more than a “Chinese wall” between itself and governments–including the US.  Another real problem is Google is working to curry favor with the NSA, CIA, DoD and others in order to sell its services and make greater profits.  Take a look at the current job openings at Google’s DC office focused on selling its services to both the intelligence community and Department of Defense.  It raises questions about the dimensions of its relationship with NSA, given that they are also looking to develop marketing opportunities.
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excerpt:  Enterprise Federal Inside Sales Representative for Intelligence Community – Washington D.C.

This position is based in Washington D.C.

The area: Enterprise

The Enterprise team focuses on integrating Google’s products and services into small and large businesses, educational institutions and government agencies. Consisting of high-achieving engineering, sales and marketing professionals, we work with a vast array of partners and customers to advance the company’s mission of organizing the world’s information to make it universally accessible and useful.

The role: Enterprise Federal Inside Sales Representative for Intelligence Community

This position is responsible for selling Google Enterprise Solutions including the Google search appliance and Geospatial products, including Google Earth and Google Maps to Federal Clients. The Google Search Appliance is a hardware and software product designed to offer large businesses the productivity enhancing power of Google search.

You must be comfortable making dozens of cold calls a day, working closely with the Federal Enterprise Sales Managers to generate and close sales to the Intelligence Community. [our bold]. Candidates must have demonstrated experience prospecting and growing an account list, as well as a successful track record of closing sales to the Federal government. Candidates should be willing to do some travel, to attend and work tradeshows and conferences, as well as to attend customer meetings.

Responsibilities:

Be responsible for the entire sales process from Prospecting to Close.
Lead Generation/outbound calling and warm lead follow up.
Understand Customer Needs and requirements.
Present and articulate advanced product features and benefits of Google Enterprise solutions. Provide on-line demonstrations.
Close Sales and achieve sales quotas. Be able to sell and differentiate in a competitive environment.
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Enterprise Federal, DOD Sales Manager – Washington D.C.

This position is located in Washington D.C.

The area: Enterprise

As the emerging leader in cloud computing, Google’s Enterprise division delivers cloud services and other IT products to small and large businesses, educational institutions and government agencies. Our team of high-achieving engineers, product managers, and sales and marketing professionals works with a vast array of partners and customers to advance the company’s mission to organize the world’s information to make it universally accessible and useful. The Enterprise team is among a handful of rapidly emerging new businesses that are becoming front-and-center for Google as it enters its second decade as a company.

The role: Enterprise Federal, DOD Sales Manager

In this position, you will generate and close sales of the Google Search Appliance and Google Geospatial products among U.S. Dept. of Defense government agencies. The main duties of this position will include making cold calls on new prospects and following up on marketing and sales leads. You will be delivering quarterly quotas and building an existing region into a more fruitful territory. Most importantly, you will be developing business strategies to capture long term programs and opportunities.

Responsibilities:

  • Achieve annual sales quota, with emphasis on strong quarterly attainment.
  • Build business strategy to generate short and long-term opportunities for all Google Enterprise products.
  • Increase awareness of Google Federal and strengthen customer relationships in the Department of Defense.
  • Develop current and new Google partners focused on DoD customers.
  • Provide accurate quarterly sales projections on a weekly basis and keep thorough records of customer interactions.
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  • Federal/Intelligence Community Account Manager, Enterprise – Washington D.C.

    This position is based in Washington D.C.

    The area: Enterprise

    The Enterprise team focuses on integrating Google’s products and services into small and large businesses, educational institutions and government agencies. Consisting of high-achieving engineering, sales and marketing professionals, we work with a vast array of partners and customers to advance the company’s mission of organizing the world’s information to make it universally accessible and useful.

    The role: Federal/Intelligence Community Account Manager, Enterprise

    In this position, you will generate and close sales of the Google Search Appliance and Google Geospatial products among Intelligence community accounts. The main duties of this position include making cold calls on new prospects and following up on marketing and sales leads. You will be delivering quarterly quotas and building an existing region into a more fruitful territory. Most importantly, you will be developing business strategy to capture long term programs and opportunities.

    Responsibilities:

  • Achieve quarterly sales quotas.
  • Generate and qualify all leads and sales opportunities.
  • Make outbound calls to targeted customers.
  • Respond to inbound inquiries from marketing and lead generation programs.
  • Serve as primary customer contact during bid submission, pilot test, legal review, and procurement.

Facebook’s Ad “Targeting Specs”–including your “Political Views,” whether you are “13” years old, or “Engaged”

We continue to tell both the FTC and EU regulators that the data collected and used by Facebook for its ad targeting system must be under the control of its users.  Facebook is in the process of making its advertising API available to additional marketers (it’s been working with several large global ad agencies in a trial).  Here’s what Facebook says advertisers can target:  countries, cities, regions, genders, college networks, work networks, age minium [“Specify a minimum age to target. If used, this must be 13 or higher.”], age maximum, education status, college years, college majors, political views [“Use 1 for LIBERAL, 2 for MODERATE and 3 for CONSERVATIVE”], relationship status [“Use 1 for SINGLE, 2 for IN_RELATIONSHIP, 3 for MARRIED and 4 for ENGAGED.”], keywords [“Keywords are matched to user profile data to better target ads for example “movies” or “cars” can be used’], interested in, radius, connections [“Connections targeting allows you to target your ads to users who have become a fan of your Page, a member of your Group, RSVP’d to your Event or authorized your Application.”], excluded connections [“Excluded connections targeting allows you to target your ads to users who have not become fans of your Page, members of your Group, RSVP’d to your Event or authorized your Application.”], friends of connections [“An array of Facebook IDs. “Friends of connections” targeting allows you to target friends of your connections. Connections are fans of your Page, users who have RSVP’d Yes or Maybe to your Event, members of your Group, and users who have interacted with your Application.”], user event.