Let’s be the ’spy’ who loved Me
If you are remotely interested in the field of personalization or targeting, then you’ve surely been hearing about The Wall Street Journal’s series What They Know, which it proclaims is a look at how “marketers are spying on Internet users – observing and remembering people’s clicks, and building and selling detailed dossiers of their activities and interests.”
The use of language like “spying” and “surveillance technology” and “surreptitiously” has been attacked by some, such as Jeff Jarvis in his post on “Cookie Madness.” But if you get beyond the scare tactic language and over-the-top talk about what the Journal’s “investigation” has learned, the series can be a useful introduction to a complex world that needs more light.
We agree with BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakol, who wrote in Advertising Age that the industry needs to be more open about tracking. “We need a less polarizing discussion,” Tawakol wrote.
Erin Jo Richey, a digital marketing analyst, sought to be more open in a piece she wrote for Ad Age and in more detail on her blog: “Since I believe that more people should become familiar with internet technologies and with web analytics, allow me to continue the Wall Street Journal’s discussion and fill in a few more details.”
And Cato Institute’s director of information policy studies, Jim Harper, noted: “Though cookies—and debate about their privacy consequences—have been around for a long time, many people don’t know even the basics.”
Transparency and openness are key to the approach DailyMe has taken with our Newstogram platform. On DailyMe, you can see the profile we maintain of your news interests by clicking on the My Newstogram link on the left rail. On this page, you also can opt out of tracking, if you wish. We’ll soon be rolling out similar pages for partner sites that use Newstogram to personalize content.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be adding to this blog additional information on cookies, tracking and privacy. We hope you’ll share with us your thoughts here.
Comments