Targeted ads: better service or Privacy Invasion?

1. Targeted ads:better service or Privacy Invasion? By Elijah Redding CIS 150

2. A New Kind of Ad: Customized to Your Interests With the internet being one of the top choices for advertising, marketers are always looking for new methods of effective advertising for use online. One method conceived is targeted advertising, advertising that has been customized to appeal to certain demographics. Two main types of targeting advertising: -Contextual: Advertising that simply displays ads based on the content of the webpage you are looking at. -Behavioral: Advertising that displays ads based on user behavior.

3. Behavioral Instead of Contextual: Large advertisers are moving more toward behavioral. Why? Contextual is limited to only one type of content at a time based off the webpage context. Behavioral ads appeal to a user’s many different interests no matter the context of the webpage. Users are personally targeted based on their internet behavior. In order to obtain the info needed to create and display ads based on a users behavior, their behavior must be recorded or tracked. As your browsing the internet, a program (hidden stalker) is basically watching what your doing and taking notes. This data can be sold to large advertisers or third-party groups which they use to create and display ads based on what your internet interests are.

4. Companies/Organizations Providing Behavioral Tracking Some of the organizations that do this are: -Google’s DoubleClick -Microsoft’s Aquantive and AdECN -AOL’s Tacoda -Yahoo’s RightMedia Even social networking websites like Facebook have been using such methods.

5. Behavior Targeted Ads: Better Service or Privacy Invasion? The current means behind Behavior Targeted Ads have many users on the internet in an uproar. However, not all are against targeted ads. From research there are two sides: -The first are strongly against…tracking internet behavior is an invasion of privacy and needs to be done away with. Some said that whoever is caught doing so should be jailed or the company shutdown. The reasoning: -Tracks personal use of the internet -Could record sensitive data such as medical, financial, or any info that users wouldn’t want others to have access to. -No guaranteed opt-out option -Companies don’t tell you what they are doing “I'm against ads, period. Advertising has gone beyond informing me of a product to the point where advertisements, especially in TV and Radio, are manufactured specifically for the purpose of manipulating me into desiring the product being advertised.” “…the problem is the targeting always seems to work like this:Hey you bought a PC yesterday; so you're in the PC buying demographic; so we'll serve you a dozen ads for the last thing you will need for the next couple of years...” “If I come across an ad/sponsored link in my online travels, I refuse to click on it. Not because I necessarily hate the company, but because I neither trust the ads I come across(spamming/phishing possibilities) nor do I wish to reward a company for intruding into my private life.”

6. Behavior Targeted Ads: Better Service or Privacy Invasion? The second is a neutral kind of view. These people agree on having ads target their interests because it relates to them and provides ‘better service’. But they DON’T agree with the tracking and collecting of personal info to do so. They want there to be some kind of regulation, option to opt-out and opt-in, and be informed on exactly how info about their behavior is being used. The reasoning: -Helps with comparison chopping -Users learn about products they are interested in but don’t know about. -Users would rather have ads that they are interested in rather some random one -Lower advertising costs leading to lower product prices -Less advertising because of more effective, more relevant targeting advertising “The summary says Americans don't want targeted ads--which is quite a different statement from the much clearer statement further down that we don't want targeted ads created from following our behavior across the internet.” “And if customers are going to get some ads, dare way better – at least its some interest to them then. Just as long as the advertisement platforms don’t break privacy too much.” “I find the targeted ads on Google searches to be useful. When I'm searching for information on Product X and there's a sponsored link along the lines of "Buy Product X here for $...", I'll often click that link if the stated price is reasonable. Well-targeted non-intrusive ads can be quite helpful for comparison shopping.”

7. Discussion: • What do you think of Targeted Ads? • What are your thoughts on behavior tracking? • Is there another method you’d prefer them to use? • What regulation would you pass?