PalatnikFactor.com

Privacy Issues to Hurt Online Marketers

November 1, 2007 by Pablo Palatnik

The telemarketing industry was hurt pretty badly when the No-Call-List came into play in the industry and cut phone list and targeted list considerably. The emergence of the online marketing industry over the years with the massive collection of data which companies collect is now being challenged by several groups, most notably by the FTC and others.

AdAge reports in their article, “Privacy Groups Propose Do-Not-Track List”, privacy groups will propose a “do-not-track” list which will play the same role as the no-call-list, and we know telemarketers take that serious given the severity of the fines. If this does come about which can take a long time but could and probably will eventually happen, it will hurt online marketers.
It comes down to a question of the use of cookies in ad targeting violating peoples rights.

Important points by AdAge article:

“the proposal calls for a requirement that advertisers, as part of their online ads, instantaneously disclose details of what they intend to track.”

“consumer-privacy advocates charge that collecting such information in order to target ads creates “a privacy imbalance that has deprived Americans of the right to control their personal information.” Privacy advocates say current standards for collecting such data, such as the Network Advertising Initiative, don’t do enough to safeguard consumers against the potential pitfalls of data collection, and that most consumers don’t understand how such data is being used. Some studies show many consumers falsely equate the existence of a site’s privacy policy with a promise that the site will not collect or use consumer data.”

Now, opponents of course will speak out…and why shouldn’t they…this can hurt the industry really bad. Are cookies and other ad targeting techniques really breaking a privacy issue with users?

“Opponents of a do-not-track proposal say current privacy standards already require that data not be personally identifiable — it cannot be attached to a phone number, address, name or otherwise unique way to identify an individual. Creating a do-not-track list would, they say, run counter to that.

“It runs into the core issue of, we don’t want to take the anonymity away. This isn’t a consumer-led revolution like do-not-call was. … This is an advocate looking for a cause issue,” said Dave Morgan, chairman of Tacoda, a behavioral-targeting firm owned by AOL.”