In recent weeks, the Internet has been flooded with a slew of articles on data privacy stemming primarily from Facebook’s new Beacon feature, which gathers personal information from third-party sites and publishes it in news feeds to a broad network of users. Many of the stories claim that, in doing so, Facebook has crossed the line.
Let me be clear that I would never support any activity that violates an individual’s right to privacy. But quite honestly, I feel the Facebook issue has been overblown. While the company may have pushed the envelope in rolling out its new feature, there’s a distinct line between wrongly distributing a user’s personal data versus using the information to enhance an online experience—particularly in this evolving world of social media.
I believe consumers need to educate themselves and realize the value these publisher sites bring to their audience, in large part by using web information (non PII data)to deliver more relevant content to their users. The sky is not falling, as several disgruntled users suggest. Rather, sites such as Facebook, Google and others have grown into personal, highly targeted destinations that the majority of consumers find useful. True, media watchdog MoveOn.org—which created a group to petition against Facebook invading privacy—has garnered support from thousands of users. But keep in mind, that is a very small percentage of Facebook’s audience of more than 9 million users.
My point is that consumers should start trusting these rapidly growing social media sites just as we have other reputable sites such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, or Washington Post. We trust these and other sites—including financial institutions—with just as much, if not more, personal data (e.g. social security numbers, credit card information, etc.). That’s because we realize these sites respect not only our privacy, but our need for a positive user experience.
In today’s busy, content-jammed world, people want information that is relevant to their particular interests, whether it’s through a social media site such as Facebook, an ecommerce site such as Overstock, or any other publisher’s site. For their part, publishers are simply trying to deliver on this value proposition by using user information to provide a more targeted, useful experience. For example, there is not a whole lot of value in targeting left-handed bowlers in Minneapolis, because there simply is not many of them. Targeting is about scale and efficiency.
Yes, intrusive measures such as spam, spyware and pop-ups have damaged the user experience, but I believe the Internet community has done a good job filtering these out. And while one negative user experience can hurt us all, we can’t let a few bad eggs spoil our valuable medium. Rather, we must do our part to respect every consumer and continue to use data properly to provide a richer, more relevant experience. That’s what targeting is all about—tracking consumer habits to deliver better content to the individual user. If we don’t, consumers will stop providing information, advertisers will be scared off, and publishers will suffer—with everyone losing out.
Facebook has rightfully beefed up its opt-in/opt-out functionality to give users more control over what and how information is being used. I hope this helps prove to the Internet community that publishers are in business to add value to their users through targeting, and certainly not to violate data privacy.
Let me close with an example: Active Athlete recently helped one of our customers, PowerBar, implemented a targeted marketing campaign. Specifically, we leveraged personal information such as training logs and browsing history to identify “new athletes” that PowerBar felt could benefit from its products. In the end, PowerBar was able to deliver relevant information to this targeted group of users about proper nutrition during a race, with an obvious tie to PowerBar products. The campaign was beneficial to both the consumer and the company, demonstrating that respectfully using available personal data can be a true win-win.
