Initial Hypothesis

Is Behavioral Targeting (BT) an invasion of privacy?

I recently asked a question regarding BT on LinkedIn, and received some very interesting responses. Obviously this is a very unscientific survey that is clearly skewed and not normally distributed, but the responses are interesting nonetheless:

I have included a few below:

• “No, I do not think it is an invasion of privacy. It’s no different than your favorite Visa or Mastercard sending you targeted inserts or coupons in your statements based on your spending habits on that card. I don’t complain when Discover sends me 10% of at Home Depot. Do I want someone tracking my online purchase, viewing habits, etc, probably not, but I also don’t want the local Chinesse delivery joint storing my cc# in theit computer. It happens, it’s called technology and it allows companies to more effectively and effeciently target their audience. Basically, I don’t want to see any regulations that limit the ability of the free market system to grow and flurish. I don’t want to see further handcuffs on small or large business trying to operate in the US.

  As a user, I’d much rather see an ad targeted to me based on exhibited behavior than a RON/ROS ad that I have no interest in.”

• “Regarding privacy, BT is not an “invasion” it is an “invitation.” Everyone accepts and understands the quid pro quo of the free internet content world is having ads – lots of them – served up on top, behind and along with the editorial. So my view of the next wave of BT is a manner, method, and process for the user to create a managed ad profile with selective inclusions and permissions. This profile starts very simply with standard gender, age, income, zip code information. It is enhanced with certain data points or beacons linked to multiple ad networks and sites. Importantly these data need to be complied into major classes of customers as already defined by services like Nielsen and comScore so the data becomes actionable and useful information.

• BT is not an invasion of privacy.It infact is a great means for both the advertiser and the targeted user-to keep out stuff / audience which is irrelevant to both. But the big question is that BT in its present state with publishers leaves much to be desired and is not effective due to various loop holes.For BT to be a success,a lot needs to be done by websites offering it as an advertising option,at a premium rate.