We all know that everything we search, like, follow and
pretty well do on the Internet is tracked all in the name for advertising. It’s
no coincidence that the things we’re into happen to be advertised to us on
sidebars while doing our everyday Google searches. Do I ever feel special?
The age were living in today, there’s a new type of market.
They’re called Data Brokers, and they’re selling our sometimes-private
information to marketers. To me, I’m not too bothered. I’ve come to adjust to
the fact that the information I give to sign-up to websites isn’t going to a
private database where it won’t be shared. Remember when Bell was selling our
phone numbers to telemarketing companies? For others, this data sharing is bad
news.
These Data Brokers aren’t just selling information about
what we have been watching on Netflix lately, or what products we’re buying at
Wal-Mart with our credit cards. They’re selling lists of information of more
narrow groups: rape victims, domestic violence victims, cancer patients and
survivors, depression sufferers, and those that are HIV positive. That’s not
where it ends, and for anyone on these lists, getting off isn’t an easy gig.
Of course, this is private information, something people
belonging to the above groups wouldn’t want out into the public. But is that
really something to worry about? I don’t think so. Marketers aren’t putting
these folks on pedestals, and exposing them to the world.
This information isn’t going to waste. It’s for effective
marketing tactics to properly target certain groups for (at least I would hope)
products or services that can help them. Maybe they need medical or mental
treatment, physiotherapy, or support groups. If these groups are worried about
being on lists, they could also be reluctant to seek attention that could help
them get through the hardships they’ve been through.
I’d like to see this type of advertising on other media as
well, not just web. Surely with the rise of on-demand television, ads will be
related to the shows and movies we’re watching, and of course the information
we gave when we signed up.
We’ve all seen the lame local ads for retail, law firms, and
dealerships when watching satellite T.V. on channels not from our area. These
ads have completely zero effect on audiences that aren’t from that region.
Perhaps we’ll stop seeing ads through networks and instead through the
satellite itself with a little thing we know as geotargeting. Since I’m not
enough of a techie, I’ll stop here.
Of course no one wants to be a statistic. But anyone who’s
online these days is a statistic. Our information is a commodity and until this
social media thing evaporates. We’ll forever be just bytes of data waiting to
enter the sales floor.
