Privacy Schmivacy

Internet advertising has taken the lead in the marketing industry as far as companies reaching their consumers. The traditional way of advertising, contextual advertising, which consists of an advertising system that scans through web pages the consumer is viewing, taking keywords from that website and placing ads, or pop up ads on that page to get the users attention to a particular product. This form of advertising has come with its form of problems and controversies. The techniques of third-party hypelinking software that downloads itself on consumer computers and interacts with the browsers catching keywords typed in and linking them to webpage advertisement, or as we better know it, internet spam.  These tactics were considered invasive according to polling done, highly objectionable by majority of the internet surfing population. Sales numbers based on this type of advertising were not impressive either as you would imagine, privacy invasion was met with great resistance by users.

According to SearchEngineWatch.com behavioral targeting or behavioral advertising:

“refers to advertising that is targeted to a specific individual based on that user's previous surfing behavior. This is quite different from the more common targeting method of displaying ads matched to the specific content of an individual page or to all users in general”

Studies are shown that advertising through behavioral patterns of users returns a higher conversion to sales rate that the conventional contextual advertisement. With the new implementation of the “Advertising Option Icon,” consumers are given more control and understanding of what information they would like shared and what they can keep private. Companies can put this icon on their website and consumers are prompted to read the rules and regulations and have the option to opt out of future ads targeted at them.

The question is, will anyone actually take the time to read through all the documentation presented? I know for myself, just as most of my peers, companies have been very successful at making the “fine print” irrelevant. Television ads, internet rules and agreement of websites we visit, products we download and purchase, it all seems like a a bunch of irrelevant stuff. We give reputable companies the benefit of the doubt that visiting their website and purchasing their product means that they have our best interest at heart and that is not the case. Social media sites have come under scrutiny as well for how they share user information, and some such as Facebook have taken steps to allow user more privacy control over their content. But does it work?  On a regular day, while I browse through the internet, I am looking for a specific thing, and once I find it I am engaged in whatever it is, I don’t think to look for advertising opt out buttons, or cookie control buttons, and unless prompted by my PC to block pop up ads, I just ignore them. So will this new measure really have any effect on my day to day surfing life? Will I be more aware of what behavioral patterns I am sharing with companies, I’m very much inclined to say no it won’t.

Till then...toodles.

Contextual Advertising , Behavior Advertising, Advertising Option Icon 

*******"e" and "i"*********

Hey there bloggers and blogettes,

I’m sure your week has been as conducive as ever, mine sure has. I managed to read 3 whole chapters from this new e-book I just got on my iPad, then went on to do homework in my online classroom, designed a website via web conference with my brother, and of course, its first Sunday, had to go get my praise on and couldn’t seem to find my Bible but luckily, there’s an app for that!!

Notice everything I did today was without the requirement of paper. Yes my friends, we are now moving faster than ever, into the digital paperless world (queue scary music!) My generation has taken technology and turned it into things that our forefathers would have never dreamed of, the phrase “If you can think it, there’s an app for it” seems to ring true more and more every second. If it doesn’t have an “e” or an “I” in front of it then it isn’t necessarily “hip”. 

 

Growing up, all the images I saw on television, was the pretty mommy sitting in the cute little kids’ room reading his or her favorite bed time story while daddy is downstairs sitting in his favorite recliner reading the latest happenings in the world.  Somehow, that “tradition” has sort of faded away and now. Books are so much more interactive, they talk to you, the characters can move, thanks to technology, children are supposed to be more engaged in learning through this way. But does it take away from people’s creativity, I liked hearing my mom try to make car noises or animal noises to emphasize a passage from the book, I personally felt more engaged in the story than maybe if I had just the book doing all the work.

Some ways digital media has taken over in my life are:

Something about me just doesn’t want to let go of the need to have a cassette player in my car. Not because I can still find an ancient cassette in this day and age, but because I want be able to use it to connect my iPod to the radio!! After purchasing my iPad, it has made it increasingly difficult for me to look to anything paper based as a source of reference, whether it’s the news, weather, research for class or even leisure games, I can find anything I want whenever I want and I don’t have to move an inch!Growing up in Kenya, East Africa, one of our biggest pleasures was being able to go to video stores and renting the “latest” movies on VHS, but with the rise of Netflix and all kinds of ways to download movies to your PC or handheld device, there was no longer a need to make that trip to the friendly video store clerk and rent out a movie, I guess that was our equivalent to Blockbuster in the USA, and even they have declared bankruptcy so imagine what’s happened to that local video store.

The goods and the bads of the digital technology era will forever be debated, and there are valid arguments on both side. Digital media, internet media, eliminates the use of paper, which means we’re cutting less trees and we are so concerned with the global warming crisis that I’m sure this is a GOOD thing, but the emotional attachments people have to reading a book, or writing a paper by hand or listening to a cassette, or watching an old movie with all the imperfections in it are traits that people are not ready to let go of yet, or sitting in the living room reading the paper and ripping out the sports section to give to your significant other.  Digital media gives us the freedom to do more with less energy, but does it take away a little bit of our ability to be “human”. Meeting and getting to know someone in person, going to the coffee shop with a good book on a rainy Saturday afternoon cozied up, parent’s taking the time and effort to engage with their children during the few hours they spend with each other in the busy day, not to mention being able to give credit where credit is due and actually paying artists for THEIR music that we’re listening to.

Whichever way we look at it, one thing’s for certain, it ain’t stopping. So we all need to just buckle our seat belt and enjoy the ride into the world of the impossible becoming possible. So before I get into bed tonight, I’ll check my emails on my Blackberry, read the news and especially sports highlights on my iPad, read my scripture for the night, and put my iPod on to rock me to sleep, I’ll dream about all the endless possibilities the new era will bring to my generation and I must say, it is exciting (but that’s just the techy in me talking!)

Toodles!!! 


Journalism and the Digital Age   , The Demise of Non-Internet Media