Category: behavioral targeting watch

Protecting Privacy and Consumers: Testimony on Behavioral Targeting Before House Commerce Subcommittees

Last week, I testified on the threat to both consumer privacy and welfare from the growing data collection, profiling, and targeting interactive online marketing system.  I told Congress it was critical to enact legislation that would protect consumers, especially as they use online and mobile networks for financial and health-related transactions (credit card applications, banking, health inquiries, etc.).  As you can see from the testimony, I said we should be able to have an online privacy policy that  ensures the public is protected, while also promoting the growth of the commercial online medium.

The link to the testimony via a press release is here.

Behavioral Targeting as “Anonymous”–Can You Fool all the Regulators All/Some of the Time?

excerpt and my emphasis from new product announcement.  Ask your self as you read, is it anonymous?:  “…Behavioral Targeting is the latest addition to the Amadesa Customer Experience Suite and represents a powerful extension of Amadesa’s personalization continuum…“Amadesa’s site-side Behavioral Targeting algorithm goes above and beyond how most marketers define personalization by incorporating principles more commonly seen in advanced advertising solutions and applying them on marketers’ sites,” explained Rita Brogley, Amadesa’s CEO. “Although the technology is among the industry’s most sophisticated, the integrated user interface makes Behavioral Targeting easy to implement with little follow-up required of the marketer…

  • An algorithm that anonymously collects hundreds of user data attributes, including time of day, day of week, IP address, referring URL and more
  • In-session updating which captures visitors’ actions and behaviors, incorporates them into personas and acts on these findings in real time
  • A sophisticated, yet easy to use, interface with actionable reporting that allows marketers to compare Behavioral Targeting traffic with a control group to track the results of the algorithm
  • A quick preview function which lets marketers easily view content options prior to launch...”

From Product Overview:  Amadesa’s Behavioral Targeting (BT) algorithm personalizes site content and media elements for visitors based upon their real-time behaviors. BT analyzes hundreds of data elements to learn which campaign promotion, category image or general creative is most compelling for each individual. By automatically matching the best content to each visitor, BT can have a dramatic affect on conversions and engagement…
source:  Amadesa Adds Site-Side Behavioral Targeting to its Continuum of Personalization SolutionsAmadesa Adds Site-Side Behavioral Targeting to its Continuum of Personalization Solutions.  Press Release.  June 15, 2009.
and Amadesa Product Overview 2009.

Behavioral Targeting Meets Neuroscience: “The ability to tap into psychological and physiological testing for ad targeting is an emerging field”

Here’s an excerpt from the article BT: Can It Mean Behavioral Responses To Ads?:

Companies touting the targeting of online ads to consumers as a mixture of art and science could soon find psychologists employed among their midst…One To One Interactive will open its primary research lab, OTOinsights, to other advertising agencies and research firms… Along with the main lab in Charleston, Mass., a mobile lab that can travel anywhere offers input on eye tracking; click tracking; bio-feedback such as heart rate, respiratory rate, galvanic skin response; neuro-feedback such as EEG/active attention; and facial recognition technology that interprets six fundamental human emotions: happy, sad, angry, surprised, scared, disgusted, and neutral…The ability to tap into psychological and physiological testing for ad targeting is an emerging field…There are between 10 and 15 firms…spearheading efforts. …Neurofocus…focuses on EEG electroencephalographic- (EEG-) based neurological testing that reveals the degrees of attention, emotional engagement, and memory retention that consumers experience at the deep subconscious level of the brain.

source:  Laurie Sullivan.  Behavioral Insider.  June 4, 2009.

Behavioral Targeting U.S. Hispanics: Another Example of Why Policymakers Must Be Proactive

Here’s an excerpt from a column written by an executive from a leading behavioral targeting company:

Behavioral targeting can help marketers reach across the cultural divide, helping to identify Hispanic online audiences, or any other ethnic group for that matter…Behavioral targeting is used to create Hispanic audience segments first based on users who have visited Spanish-language sites or any sites with Hispanic-relevant content. You can then create sub-segments based on not only ethnicity, culture, or language, but also interests and purchase intent behaviors observed on those or other sites. You can even identify “purchase influencers” among U.S. Hispanic populations, based on browsing and buying behaviors plus geographic location. You may then serve culturally relevant marketing messages to these segments when they travel to any other site online.

You will also find re-targeting useful, once you have begun to build these behavioral segments. As you serve ads to your Hispanic audiences and sub-segments, you can then re-target them across whichever network or sites you choose, with upsell, cross-sell, or discount offers…Behavioral profiles that have been tagged as part of a Hispanic audience or sub-segment can be given a boost by search data including Spanish-language or Hispanic content keywords or search engines that have been set to Spanish.

source:  How to use BT to reach U.S. Hispanics.   Jeff Hirsch.  April 21, 2009.  imediaconnection

Tracking You Offline for Better Targeting You Online: Why both the FTC and Congress Need to Protect Consumers

There is growing evidence daily about threats to consumer privacy online–all of which have real life consequences for the decisions we make when we buy products.   As the public relies more on using online to apply for credit cards, mortgages, explore health concerns or issues affecting their children and teenagers, it’s absolutely essential the individual–not the business–have full control over their data.  In a trade article on the “profiling” of consumers for online targeting, here’s how they describe linking your offline data with your digital experience.  It shows how the current definition of Personally Identifiable Information, PII, is out of date and fails to protect consumers.  Marketers don’t need your name or address to know your behaviors and target you [excerpt]:

How do marketers get access to the offline purchase data? More importantly, how do they marry it to your online identity without using PII? Usually, this involves the cooperation of several parties. The first might be an online retailer that links a credit card used in an ecommerce transaction with a third-party cookie. The second party is a data partner who owns that particular cookie and pulls in additional purchase history to augment the profile associated with that cookie, and then rents the profile to a marketer. The third is an online ad exchange, which will allow ad hoc purchasing of inventory against a particular cookie across inventory sold on the exchange.

source:  Where do we draw the line on consumer profiling?  Tom Hespos.  imediaconnection.com.  May 21, 2009

Behavioral Targeting Merges with Social Media Marketing for Individual Profiling [Annals of Behavioral Targeting]

As a growing number of people recognize (and taking advantage of), behavioral targeting is part of the social media marketing business model.  Such an approach illustrates why policymakers across the globe must address what is a largely stealth commercial surveillance system.  It has implications for the collection of data on individuals by government as well [my bold].

Here’s a excerpt from a recent announcement by WPP owned 24/7 Real Media Inc.:  “the leading global digital marketing company, has begun a pilot program to integrate social media engagement metrics into its behavioral targeting application. These social media engagement metrics will augment existing behavioral targeting attributes to drive robust advertising response and conversion.  Working with companies such as NuConomy, an innovator in social media measurement, select 24/7 Real Media advertisers are now leveraging non-traditional metrics such as comments, ratings, video plays, and link sharing to customize advertising, increase responsiveness and drive purchases.”

and Nuconomy says that:
“By tracking engagement and site activity at the individual user level, NuConomy’s module automatically builds rich behavioral profiles, or interest maps, for each user – such as who is posting comments on bikes or sharing music recommendations with friends. This level of detail gives publishers a deeper understanding of user behavior so they can optimize their sites and marketing messages for different audience segments, even different individuals.”

PS:  We see that the folks over at the AT&T, Yahoo, AOL, etc. backed Future of Privacy Forum has engaged WPP to help its new research effort designed “to develop a variety of [privacy] notices that will resonate with consumers and begin to test them with users.”

We suggest that as its initial effort, the Forum require WPP to make public all the various methods it uses to collect data from consumers.  Such a list includes WPP’s ad networks, online games, mobile, cable broadband platforms, social media, etc.  That would provide the research initiative a good place to begin, if its effort is to be taken seriously.

Technology Policy Institute’s Funders: An Online Marketing and Data Collection Lobby [Annals of Undermining Privacy Safeguards]

The Technology Policy Institute has a new study designed to help its corporate backers undermine the growing call to protect consumer privacy online.  Look who funds the TPI (and look for the failure of the study to acknowledge the funders and the conflict of interest) :

  • Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Video Metrics: “gauged by the millisecond” [Annals of Social Media Marketing]

The Obama Administration’s use of social media and analytics should trigger a serious debate.  How much information on citizens and others do we really want the government to have?  As part of the discussion, consider this excerpt from social marketing company’s RockYou’s pitch to advertisers and others [our bold].  This about the Feds tracking as you watch government-funded videos:

“…Social Video Ads and Cross Platform Video Distribution on the RockYou Ads Network…Looking at the landscape of online advertising – on social networks and beyond – it’s obvious that video advertising is the medium of choice for brands and marketers who have a story to tell…Video metrics go far beyond impressions. Audience interactions (views, stops, rewinds, sharing) are gauged by the millisecond and response can be measured, in real numbers. Advertisers who can combine that data with behavioral or demographic profiling, to reach exact targets, get amazing results. 

Google’s New YouTube Policy: Expanded Data Collection & Privacy

On May 6 2008, YouTube announced that “Starting today, signing up for YouTube means signing up for a Google Account that gives you access to YouTube, as well as other Google services such as iGoogle, Reader and Docs…So why are we doing this? We feel that by jointly connecting accounts, you can take greater advantage of our services both on YouTube and on Google, especially as we start to roll out new features in the future that will be powered by Google technology.”

But as search engine online guide ISEdb.com explains it [excerpt]:

One of the advantages for Google once users sign up with a Google account would be a significantly better targeting for its advertising both in and outside YouTube (Google Docs, AdSense advertising, Google News and Finance, etc.) thanks to the personal information gathered on the search giant’s servers. This is particularly important in light of the recent introduction of behavioral targeting for AdSense, which keeps track of the user’s interests to try and display to him or her messages that are most likely to attract his or her attention…Like many other popular search engines, Google collects search data for its users for the previous 9 months in order to achieve better targeting, with governments — particularly the EU court — pushing for such a limit to be reduced to 6 months or less. However, there is no restriction for the gathering of non-search related data including YouTube and Gmail among others.

Online Behavioral Profiling & Targeting of Individuals Based on their Political Interests: Privacy Safeguards Are Required for Interactive Marketing

This week an online marketing company called Resonate Networks “announced the first online ad network built for political and public affairs advertising.” According to the company, “Resonate’s ad network is powered by its proprietary Attitudinal Targeting platform that, for the first time, provides public affairs and political advertisers with the ability to identify, persuade, motivate and organize like-minded audiences online and drive them towards an actionable step—whether it is joining a campaign, contributing to a cause, or supporting an initiative.”  Resonate’s platform, they say, was “[D]eveloped by world-class research and online industry experts, Resonate’s Attitudinal Targeting platform incorporates extensive and proprietary algorithms, data modeling and analysis to map Web users’ attitudes and issue positions against their online behavior.  Attitudinal data that advertisers can leverage include…Targeting highly influential individuals with a history of taking action related to an issue of interest…”   “It’s really drilling down to people’s beliefs and where they stand on issues,” Resonate’s CEO told MediaPost.

Resonate told the Washington Post’s Cecilia Kang that the company’s approach doesn’t raise any privacy concerns.  But they are wrong.  How citizens and others are tracked, analyzed, profiled and targeted based on their political views is a privacy (and consumer protection) issue.  Both Congress and the FTC need to look closely at the growing role online profiling and targeting is playing in the political and policy arena.   

Financially backed by well-known political campaigners from both parties,  Resonate also explains that it “has developed one of the most advanced engagement models available, with the ability to not just understand who is influential, but where you can find influentials who care about specific issues.”   Here are excerpts of its pitch to corporate advertisers:

“For the first time, corporate advertisers and agencies have the power to precisely pinpoint and reach web users whose attitudes and issue positions make them most receptive to certain messages and calls-to-action…Micro-Targeting Means Higher-Performance Campaigns: Resonate Networks delivers higher concentrations of your target audiences, translating into greater exposure for your campaign among the right mix of people…Message Segmentation: The success of your campaign may require reaching different audiences with different messages: A supportive audience may receive a direct response offer, while others who are unaware of your products or their benefits may receive an educational message designed to nurture their interest over time. Reduced Budget Waste:  Resonate offers the ability to reach web users that are pre-disposed to your message or product based on their attitudes or beliefs. Conversely, Resonate can help avoid those who hold opposing or conflicting beliefs.”

In addition, Resonate says that it uses “Rich Attitudinal Data:

  • Resonate targets campaigns based on layers of detail on a range of audience attitudes, including:
    • Issues and issue positions
    • Engagement/influencer status
    • Ideology
    • Media consumption
    • Religiosity
    • Partisanship
    • Vote history”