Networked computers allow for work and leisure to grow independent of their fixed locations. Social networks are growing more and more important to marketing staffs because of their growing number of users, which in turn increases research and practitioner focus. Companies want to use certain characteristics about social networking sites to their advantage. First, users give information about themselves voluntarily. Second, the correctness of the information given is more accountable, especially on sites like Xing. And third, customers can be classified through analysis of their interactions, which provides data to support the information already given in their personal information. “MySpace.com also logs non-personally-identio,
able information including IP address, proo,
le information, aggregate user data, and browser type, from users and visitors to the site. [...] This non-personally-identio,
able information may be shared with third-parties to provide more relevant services and advertisements to members.” Other ways to advertise include ‘Guerilla marketing’ which includes a low budget, a very low budget, high entertainment value, and unconventional promotional activities including performances. They defined private data, group data, community data, and public data. These various levels of data are used to help extend the “common classification of confidentiality levels.” Private data, must have consent to be disclosed, i.e.- the email you submit upon registration. Group data, can be disclosed to the social networking service (SNS) operator as well as by users who have the same SNS, can only disclose data to the group, i.e.- messages that are shared among a group. Community data, the data is accessible by everyone accept anonymous SNS visitors, i.e.- online status’, contacts, page details and photos. Public data, everyone has accessibility even the anonymous visitors, i.e.- user name and guestbook.

I think it is interesting that MySpace and Facebook have these powers to basically do whatever they want. MySpace openly says they will give your information to a third party. I do think it is smart for companies to use these social networks to their advantage. Millions of people use these websites, if your advertisement is posted; it is bond to be seen by thousands and thousands if not millions of people. It is a smart marketing strategy. The only problem I have is the company having access to basically all of the users information.

In Britain there is no advertising on radio or television, there is only 1 major domain of public space left in Britain that is commercial free, BBC television. In America, everything around us is designed to persuade someone to buy something or to recall a logo, a name, a clothing line. Advertisements include clothes, boxes, cans, bottles, everything. The article goes on to explain how America has advertising is every aspect of life including the internet, where ads pop up on every website; movies, the previews are ads and the ads that pay before the previews, telling you to go buy popcorn or go shopping at this mall; buses are moving billboards; sport events, the uniforms have logos on them, the stadium has advertisements in the bathrooms, on the walls, on the big screens, on the media coverage on television.

His friend calls it “an invasion of privacy.” He argues that he has no right to control what his neighbor puts on their wall so he has no right to complain about what is on a movie screen, what’s on a website or what’s on the uniform of a sports player. However, he says advertising may appear in three kinds of spaces: private (home, body, car), public (streets, sidewalks, parks), and commercial (businesses, stores, offices, movies, arenas).  People hate telemarketers because they are uninvited advertisers in private space. It is expected; however, to be advertised to in public space. He does think that public space should be off limits to advertising because public space is owned and operated by the people and should not be managed by private interests.

I am not 100% certain that public space should be off limits to advertisers. I feel like they have to make money and advertising is the best way to get your product noticed. The problem with advertising develops when the advertisers take their advertising methods one step too far and actually do ‘invade privacy.’ I do however agree that advertisements really are everywhere. You cannot walk 1 block without seeing some form of advertising.

Thierer doesn’t understand why people think Facebook is taking away their rights. He feels they are just clarifying how user information will be used. He says, if you don’t like Facebook’s policies then you should go to another social networking site. However, he appreciates that people are sensitive about their rights and are actually looking to make Facebook change their approach to user information and its ownership. He feels people should try to remedy issues on their own before trying to run to the government to fix everything, so he respects those who want Facebook to change their rules. He calls this remedy, “voluntary persuasion and social pressure.” Internet increases the number of ways advertisers can reach their audiences and Internet increases how much power their audiences have to influence the advertisers. When Facebook first said their users would share online purchases and didn’t tell users how the program would work and didn’t give people the choice of not using the program, people responded quickly. The wanted the settings returned to their original state and Facebook did exactly that.

Markets want to satisfy their customers. Thierer believes Internet companies have to follow the terms they laid out in their privacy policy because it is a contract that they set out for their customers. He thinks legal action should be taken against companies who do not follow their policy and leave their customers out of the loop. But again he returns to his argument that people join these social networks at their own free will and that they are not required to stay.

I agree that markets will do what they can to satisfy their customers. They want their customers to be happy so that they will return. I do agree that people choose to join Facebook and other social networking services but I do not think they should be forced to leave. If they are not happy for a legitimate reason, they should be able to complain and they should receive a response that actually tries to accommodate them and not completely ignore me.

They define a social network service as that it “focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.” They provide ways for people to interact with each other through services like email and instant messenger. They encourage people to openly communicate with each other and to share their information. They are growing so rapidly that they seem like they will be a regular part of every day life. Their strength is that they can gather millions and millions of users that are all unique. Their fault, however, is their inability to monetize their volumes. All major forms of social networking contain ‘category divisions’ i.e.- a former classmate. They use these category divisions to connect people with friends. There are 4 main social networks in North America, 1 in Canada, 1 in Europe, 3 in South and Central America, and 4 in Asia and the Pacific Islands. And those are only the main or most widely used networks, not how many are in each country. The attempts at standardizing these social services in the attempt to not duplicate friends or interest has led to concerns about privacy.

There has always been the concern about sexual predators and giving too much personal information online. However, law enforcement has been brought in on sites such as MySpace to try to help prevent issues of sexual crimes.  Now the focus has shifted to giving large corporations and government bodies too much personal information. Also, who has control over the data that is submitted is a growing problem.

I used this source because it had a lot of information about social networking services that other sites did not have. There is so much information in this one article. It covers several different aspects of social networking and gives good detail and examples. I normally don’t use Wiki for research but I felt it was appropriate for this assignment.

Socialframes is Wyndstorm’s latest product that helps fix a problem in the advertising industry. The problem is withdrawing clickthru charges for online advertising. It can capture customers with user experiences helped put it on the map. Socialframes helps marketers and advertisers with pricing and with their effectiveness. They work with marketing departments in order to “understand the consumer target, develop profiles and then help marketers identify places in the social graph where their targeted customers spend their time equally impress prospects.”

Marketers are worried about their target market and that it is susceptible to theft. Kids join online communities because their friends join them. The same tools kids use to play with dolls, they use on online communities. It requires “applying personality, imagining interactions with others and creating an imaginary world.” Marketers must understand that their ‘target market’ is vulnerable to other marketers who are also targeting a particular market. Social networks allow adult play without the adult having to leave the security of their home. Social networks are here to stay.

I definitely agree that social networks are here to stay. And I don’t just say that because I would be lost without my Facebook. I think social networks have opened up a whole new world for people, a world of open communications and open sharing; it’s personal yet impersonal. As creative as people are, new types of social networking will come but I don’t think it will ever go away. The fact that the President of the United States could use it for his political campaign says a lot about its importance.

Google’s privacy center explains Google’s rules and regulations about privacy and advertising. They offer 2 advertising programs that show consumers useful and relevant ads online. The ads are on all of Google’s partner sites and in ‘Google content network.’ The ads that show up deal primarily with the subject of your search. They give you tools to help view and manage the given information. They protect privacy by following three principles: transparency, choice and no personally identifying information. Transparency- they give information about their advertising policies and their practices. Choice- they offer new ways to view, manage and opt out of the advertising cookies. No personally identifying information- they do not save or distribute ads that are based on personally identifying information without consumer consent. The Opt-out option allows consumers to opt out of the DoubleClick cookie ‘(for AdSense partner sites, DoubleClick ad serving, and certain Google services using the DoubleClick cookie.)’ You can also opt out of third party cookies as well. In the privacy center they offer five videos that explain cookies, third party ads, and interest based advertising. These videos are followed by a series of frequently asked questions including ‘how does Google protect my privacy when it comes to advertising?’ The answer is that they only show ads for what you are searching at that moment. They say they do not collect information in order to sell something back to you later.

I thought the Google Privacy Center would be important for my argument because it gives the voice of the defendant. Most of my articles are against Google and other companies and social networking and advertising sites. I wanted to see what Google has to say. I’m not sure I believe that they do not collect previous information because I believe we discussed in class how whatever you type into Google is always with Google. So how are they not saving information if they always have it once you search for it?

Online social networks draw the attention of non-users because of all of the privacy concerns that surround them, even though they present opportunities for interaction among users. Facebook is mainly for college and high school students and communities. Facebook stands out the most because it has huge success with college students, users have the ability to control the amount and quality of personal information to make available and because the personal information is personally identified. Facebook has more than 9 million and counting users. It has the ability to have more than 80% of all undergraduates in many colleges. Because Facebook requires an email address to activate an account, the validity of each user increases. It also helps give the impression that Facebook is a secure, closed, trustworthy community.

They performed a case study that looked at the “patterns and motivations of information revelation of college students on Facebook.” The majority of the participants were undergraduate students. The conducted a survey that had screening questions, consent questions, calibration questions, and Facebook related questions. The calibration questions were to assess the participant’s attitudes towards privacy without telling them the subject of the study. Questions were tailored towards usage, knowledge and attitudes about Facebook. Of 318 participants, 278 had heard of Facebook, 40 had not, 225 had a Facebook profile, 85 had never had one, and 8 had one and deactivated it.  On average, the participants considered privacy policy a highly important issue. It was actually considered more important than the threat of a terrorist attack. Privacy was not as much of a concern for members as it is non-members. They found evidence that “the sensitivity towards privacy is stronger among non-members than members.” Almost half of the staff that took the survey had never heard of Facebook, that’s 34 people. About 23% of the graduate students had never heard of it and a mere 1.59% of the undergraduates had never heard of it.

I find it interesting that non-members are most concerned about privacy than actual members. It’s kind of like when your mother worries about your safety at a party and you think it is completely safe. Or when you know something is not a problem but someone who doesn’t exactly know what’s going on is fearful. I do, however, think the statistics for people who had never heard of Facebook is pretty accurate for the age groups. Maybe not in 2009, but in 2006 that is pretty believable. I think now almost everyone has at least heard of Facebook. I don’t even think I knew what Facebook was in 2006. I was a late Facebooker.

Lotame is a new advertising service that tries to find out as much about a consumer as possible and then using that information and giving it to advertisers. The CEO of Lotame said that the information collected is completely anonymous and only really gathers information on age, gender, and zip code. Advertising is only successful when the advertiser can give solid demographics from their publisher. Traditional media ranges from age, gender, location, and interests to almost anything. It all depends on how successful the survey is and how they collected other data. In traditional media, advertising is collected and saved. Internet media does not. Some people want for the Internet to be anonymous with absolutely no hints to actual identity. It’s all about privacy.

Lotame and Facebook are looking to change advertising on the web. Facebook now has ‘Engagement Advertising’. Both ‘Engagement Advertising’ and Lotame want to target ads to the intended audience. They want to do this by collecting more and more data in better and more meaningful ways. Facebook believes that old advertising tactics wont work in advertisings new phase. They think their plan will satisfy more advertisers and will appeal to the publishers who are looking to increase their revenue through advertisements. “Online culture dictates privacy.” This blogger thinks Lotame and Facebook are forgetting this, which he considers a major sticking point for every advertiser and publisher. He believes if they hint at invasion of privacy even a little it, their new campaign won’t work.

I do not like Lotame. I think it completely invades privacy even though its CEO says it only keeps zip codes and age. I think he is trying to cover himself so that people do not fear invasion of privacy. I do agree that people will run if they think their privacy is being tampered with. Especially in today’s society, it really is all about privacy.

Tal Zarsky thinks that the increased attention to online privacy by both professional and popular press has come from the immense amount of personal information collected, stored and analyzed by the commercial entities that run dominant websites. People are under the misconception that whatever is done online, stays online. Their actions are anonymous, secret, private, and allow you to almost become a separate personae online. Regulators and legal scholars are still trying to establish why privacy is so essential and a clear definition of what privacy really is and the disadvantages for its deterioration. He thinks that the issues with privacy today might lead to strict data protection rules that would cause serious losses to larger commercial bodies that directly benefit from using personal data. In order to truly understand the current privacy concerns, one must acknowledge the power of persuasion each commercial entity has. Analyzing privacy issues from the perspective on the commercial entities presents strong questions about property and free speech rights.
Several businesses today can track their users through “cell phones, E-Z passes, Smart Cards, credit cards, MetroCards and supermarket cards.” All of these devices were made with the intention of gathering personal information from its’ user. Company can save terabytes of useless information now because the price of computer memory has decreased, so they save information that they do not need. Knowledge Discovery in Databases, or KDD, searches for patterns and close associations between different factors. In the past, “mass media” distributed information to large amounts of people. Then instead of mass media we got “local radio…newspapers, magazines, and personal mailings….” Today we have the Internet, with the ability to “market for one,” meaning no longer did companies have to target whole groups of people. Now they could make an ad for just one person, individually. Personalized ads are made through the Internet’s digital interface which allows companies to customize every little interaction between its users and their website. And the way they customize these ads is through the analysis of the personal information they obtained earlier.
With the help of social psychologist and advertising experts Zarsky examined whether or not tailored content influenced customers and whether it was unfair to other content providers. He defines an optimal advertisement as one that “1) cross[es] the individuals’ barriers of perception, 2) capture[s] the individuals’ attention, and 3) affect[s] their comprehension.” Online ads influence perception, attention and comprehension more than offline ads. Zarsky concluded that the “meaning of ‘fairness’ [in terms of ‘fair advertising’] be broadened to include freedom not only from deception, but from overly influential means of communication as well….” He feels the use of tailored personal information is a harmful outcome to the enhanced flow of personal information.
I think Mr. Zarsky has a point in saying that advertisements that are tailored to an individual are more persuasive than ones that are not. Personalization can mean a lot in an advertisement. If the customer feels like he product really fits them, they are probably more likely to buy it. Verses a product that is advertised to everyone, they may be more reluctant to by because it may not be ‘special.’ This article will be very useful for my final paper. I think he makes a lot of good points and arguments about big name advertisers and the influence a tailored advertisement can have.

The Federal Trade Commission thinks that Congress should require the fair information practice principles despite the challenges that profiling by network advertisers presents. Some of the challenges include the existence of the non-visible, third-party relationship between network advertisers and consumers, meaning consumers do not know that their information and activity is being monitored by network advertising companies. Consumers only see the website that they are visiting, unless the website informs them of the advertising networks presence and that they are collecting data. Another challenge comes from having multiple network advertisers on one particular website.

In November 1999, the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) was formed. It is made up of the leading Internet Network Advertisers including 24/7 Media, Avenue A, Engage and MatchLogic. They created a blueprint for the self-regulation of the online profiling industry. The point of implementing fair information practices to online profiling is to attain transparency (the collection and use of both non-personally identifiable information and personally identifiable information) when the consumer is unaware that they are being profiled. A consumer cannot say whether or not they want their information given out unless they know it is being collected. It would be ideal for each website to provide a notice and the choice options to consumers when a network advertiser is placing cookies on their files or is collecting other information. This way, consumers can choose not to partake in profiling. For non-personally identifiable data, network advertisers cannot link what they have already collected to personally identifiable information without the consent of the consumer. Consumers will be given access to their personally identifiable information that is retained for profiling by a network advertiser. Network Advertisers must take notable precautions for protecting consumer information from being loss, misused, altered, and destroyed. To enforce the rules, all industry members must submit themselves for monitoring of compliance by an independent third party and are subject to sanctions for non-compliance. The Commission believes the NAI Principles tackle the privacy concerns most consumers have about online profiling. The Commission believes self-regulation to be really important and they think the NAI presents a concrete self-regulatory method.

I agree with the Federal Trade Commission and believe that fair information practice principles should be required. If consumers are unaware they are being watched, they cannot voice their opinion about how they feel about being watched. As of now, network advertisers can take personally identifiable information and combine it with the profiles that were created by cookies. This is not fair to me. I think the network advertisers have way too much non-consented, private information. By putting requirements on how much information they can take and requiring them to ask for permission before taking certain types of information, they are giving privacy back to the consumer. Even though the consumer never knew it was gone and some could argue, therefore, it didn’t matter anyway, but I believe that it is still their personal information and no one should be able to just take it without authorized consent.

This project is about advertising and privacy and whether or not companies should have access to consumer personal information without consent and then personalizing advertisements back to the consumer. It will also look at actual consumer response to advertising and privacy and how actual consumers feel about receiving personalized advertisements.