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
Category: social networks
Former journalist and now online ad industry lobbyist Randall Rothenberg, in a BusinessWeek commentary, suggests that the call for privacy rules ensuring individuals have control over their data will undermine the Internet. You would think a Madison Ave. trade group could craft more creative PR copy. But the online ad industry’s position is indefensible, since they built a system based on the harvesting of our information without believing they would need to get our permission first. The IAB board should realize it has embarked on a very dangerous campaign here that will undermine credibility for many marketers. Here’s my response submitted to BusinessWeek:
Mr. Rothenberg, as head of the interactive ad trade group lobbying against the call from consumer groups for the government to protect personal privacy online, fails to address the central question regarding online advertising. The call for regulation is designed to ensure individuals control their data while on the Internet or using their mobile phones—not companies such as Google, Microsoft, and AOL. Public interest groups are not opposed to interactive marketing: indeed, we recognize it as a key source of funds for online publishing. But Mr. Rothenberg’s members have created a commercial surveillance system that rivals the NSA—tracking and analyzing our every move while on the Internet, all so we can be encouraged to behave favorably to some marketing message. Responsible ad industry leaders will seriously address the privacy threats created by the interactive marketing apparatus—and not hide behind self-serving claims that unless our privacy is lost, we won’t have a robust digital medium.
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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
Google, AOL, Yahoo, Facebook and Comcast Fear NY State bill protecting online privacy
Oh, what a tangled web when you build a business mode based on the collection and unfettered use of microtargeting data. New York state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky has proposed some modest safeguards–but has scared the supposedly privacy-respectful companies such as Google with it. Google, AOL, Yahoo and others sent the letter below to Brodsky. Yesterday, we are told, AOL and News Corp lobbyists met with Brodsky’s office and claimed that the online ad industry would have to flee New York if consumers are protected in that state. Perhaps they plan to relocate Madison Avenue to a digital green zone outside the U.S.! Btw, note the addition of Comcast, which also wants to protect its TV version of behavioral targeting via its Spotlight service.
The letter:
State Privacy and Security Coalition, Inc.
April 7, 2008
The Honorable Richard Brodsky
New York General Assembly
Legislative Office Building
Room 422
Albany, NY 12248
Re: Opposition to A. 9275
Dear Assemblyman Brodsky:
We are writing to express our strong opposition to A. 9275, which is
unnecessary, most likely unconstitutional, and would have profound
implications for the future of Internet advertising and the availability of free
content on the Internet.
A. 9275 would subject advertising networks to an extremely
detailed, unprecedented array of notice, consent, and access obligations
relating to “personally identifiable information†and “non-personally
identifiable information †that is used for “online preference marketing.â€
Every website that an advertising network contracts with would be subject
to detailed notice requirements.
This bill is unnecessary because advertising networks have already
agreed to self-regulation commitments relating to most of the components
of this bill. If they fail to live up to these commitments, then the Federal
Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General’s office would
have enforcement authority. Moreover, the bill appears to be based on
Network Advertising Initiative principles that will soon be outdated, as new
principles are expected to be released in the near future.
This self-regulatory system is continuing to advance. The Federal
Trade Commission has issued further self-regulatory principles relating to
behavioral advertising on which it will receive extensive comments later
this week, and several major network advertisers have announced new self-
regulatory initiatives. New York does not need to, and should not, jump
into this process.
This is particularly true because the Dormant Commerce Clause of
the U.S. Constitution prevents any State from dictating activity across the
Internet. Yet network advertisers and websites across the country and
operating in other countries would have to attempt to change their practices
to conform to the very specific notice, consent and access requirements in A. 9275. It is simply not feasible to comply with Internet advertising regulations that vary from state-to-state. Time after time, state laws that have attempted to impose this sort of broad Internet regulation have been struck down by the courts, doing nothing more than making taxpayers bear the expense both of defending the lawsuit and paying the successful plaintiffs’ attorneys fees.
For all these reasons, we urge you to oppose A. 9275 and allow self-regulation and federal initiatives to address online behavioral advertising.
Sincerely,
Jim Halpert
Counsel
[Members]
AOL, LLC
Comcast
eBay Inc.
EDS
Facebook
Google
Internet Alliance
Monster Worldwide
NAi
NetChoice
Reed Elsevier, Inc.
Yahoo!
500 8th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004
202.799.4000 Tel
202.799.5000 Fax
CDD Publishes new report on widgets, third-party apps: "The Facebook Economy"
My CDD commissioned a report from investigative journalist Adam Mayle that examines Facebook and the growing universe of third-party applications. The report, available via here, examines some of the data collection and privacy issues from these Facebook-related services.
Here’s a short excerpt: “But while this platform has benefited many, it raises concerns about user privacy. Because of their deep integration into Facebook, developers have extensive access to user information, but it is often unclear if, when and how they exploit this data. This situation is perpetuated by Facebook’s unwillingness to regulate the widgets that operate on the site. As a result, users often have no idea who is collecting their data, how information is obtained as one interacts with these applications and how such data – even so- called not non-personally identifiable information – is subsequently used. By eschewing liability and placing the burden of responsibility on developers to police their own applications, Facebook unnecessarily exposes its users to cyber-threats like adware, malware and hackers. In many ways, Facebook has created a
dynamic social network, but because of the practices that it has adopted, it needlessly places the privacy and security of its users in harm’s way.”
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Brand Marketing and Social Media
Brand marketers, including movie studios, apparently love those “viral” applications to help drive ticket sales. We will have more to say about this topic soon, including at the FTC. At yesterday’s Social Media Business School “class,” the veterans from the digital ad business (meaning those somewhat over thirty) schooled the mostly in their twenties hungry developers about hitting the big time with the largest brand advertisers. The session I attended focused on the question: “What are Brands looking for in Social Advertising: eyeballs, interactions or engagement.”
I hope brands are also looking for corporate responsibility. There will be many–including my group–which do.
Report from the field–Social Media
In San Francisco, the talk about social media and advertising is all about bringing the power of “virality” to help sell movies, cars and the big brands. There’s an audience of eager, mostly under 30, developers who want to cash in and be part of the ad business.
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Murdoch’s MySpace uses behavioral targeting to harvest data of its users, including when they are having a baby or going off to college
From the mouths of data collecting social network executives, via Online Media Daily:
“…Heidi Browning, the senior vice president of client solutions for Fox Interactive Media, cited some impressive results from behavioral targeting using data from MySpace–including a 733% lift in brand awareness, 800% lift in recall, 152% increase in brand favorability, and 179% increase in purchase intent.
She added that social networks like MySpace are ideal places to harvest data for behavioral targeting because consumers voluntarily provide detailed information about a host of behaviors and attitudes–including, for example, media consumption and brand preferences as well as simple demographic descriptors, age, education, and geographic location. From these, Fox assembled a number of enthusiast and lifestyle segments, broadly grouped in 10 super-segments, with at least 3 million and as many as 10 million members each.
According to Browning, MySpace data can tell marketers when a user “is moving, having a baby, going to college”–but also more subtle information including receptivity to ad messaging at different times of day. With other data sources, like DVR records, she said MySpace information will allow “hyper-targeting” of consumers, delivering the right kind of ad message via the right medium at the right time of day.”
source: “Behavioral Targeting: A Brave New World… Maybe.” Erik Sass. Online Media Daily. Feb. 26, 2008 [reg required]
IAB’s new “Privacy Principles”=A Failure to Protect Consumer Privacy
The IAB has embraced a `circle the data collection and micro-targeting digital wagon’s’ with its new privacy principles. Instead of embracing a policy that truly protects consumer privacy, IAB members are trying to hide behind the same failed approach they have led to governmental inquiries in the US and the EU. The IAB should have adopted rules so that no data can be collected without full disclosure and prior consent of the consumer, as well as other fair information collection principles. The IAB’s proposed new PR campaign to promote the role of interactive marketing will undoubtedly by slick–but won’t be honest. That’s why my CDD will keep telling the FTC, the EU and the public about what really goes on with data collection and digital marketing. These slightly refurbished fox-watching-the-data-hen-house-privacy principles won’t provide any substantive protections for consumers. The failure of the IAB to acknowledge key issues related to sensitive data–including children, teens, financial (think subprime mortgage-related) and health–is a glaring failure of the group’s ability to do what is required to protect consumer privacy.
The IAB is trying to help its members dodge the digital privacy data bullet. But privacy advocates and officials concerned about consumer welfare in the digital age will eventually force the needed changes. What’s sad is that instead of playing a leadership role in the privacy debate, the IAB is attempting to stick with the past. Don’t they realize that change is coming?
Microsoft’s Digital Ad Vision: Part 2
From this week’s Microsoft’s “Strategic Update [Feb. 4, 2008]. Excerpt:
“Advertising is a key part of a number of the opportunities that I talked about, and the key probably right now for us to continue to grow our advertising footprint starts with what we’re doing with search and portal. We have made good progress in that business. It is growing. Since our start four years ago, we now have what I would call a very credible search product, a very credible advertising platform. We’ve got good trajectory. This was, in some senses, the best time for us to ask ourselves, what else can we do to make ourselves even more effective in this business?
And in a sense, the fact that we’re in a stronger position now than we were 12 months ago actually makes this an easier acquisition to consider, even though, as I said in my letter to Jerry Yang, we did have discussions a year ago with Yahoo! about combining the businesses. People say, what are you doing here? Well, what we’re trying to do is take some momentum that we have and ask, how do we really increase that momentum even further? What else can we do?
And the truth is, either on our own efforts or, hopefully, now that we’ve proposed this acquisition, on our efforts merged together with Yahoo!, there are really four things we get a chance to work on. First and foremost is to expand our R&D capacity. We’re going to have to innovate like crazy to get the position want to have in this market. We’re going to have to innovate in the ad platform. We’re going to have to innovate in core search. We’re going to have to invest in new, emerging user experiences —mobile, social media, video, entertainment experience. We need the R&D capability to really compete with the market leader.
We continue to hire people and transfer people. But in fact, bringing together Microsoft and Yahoo! will allow us, because of the fantastic engineering talent both at Yahoo! and at Microsoft, we get more capacity more quickly. We get a chance to not have to think so much about how do we not use the capacity we have, but how do we deploy this incredible team to make sure that we’re doing everything and more that the market leader might be doing?”