Digital marketing is not bad. Lack of transparency is …

I’m an advocate for greater transparency in digital marketing. Transparency isn’t buried in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Transparency is in actually telling people what you are doing – in plain English. Whether on the web, your cell phone or your HD DVR, providers want more and more granular data about … YOU and WHAT YOU DO. We’re being instrumented and correlated at a rate that most folks just don’t understand. We’re going to experience a whole new wave of issues once we enter the realm of “deep-packet inspection” … keep checking the (revised) fine print from your service provider.

I’ll blog more about this over the next few months.

To kick it off, there was a great article in the Washington Post today - Every Click You Make - Internet Providers Quietly Test Expanded Tracking of Web Use to Target Advertising by Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post Staff Writer.

“The online behavior of a small but growing number of computer users in the United States is monitored by their Internet service providers, who have access to every click and keystroke that comes down the line.

The companies harvest the stream of data for clues to a person's interests, making money from advertisers who use the information to target their online pitches.”

OK – once again, refer rule #2 … my interests are not solely expressed by what I click on. What I click on accurately reflects what I clicked on.

The big movement here is building a Behavioral Targeting Network … Babel-fish translation– a large database of what you clicked on in the past, so future web pages you look at will have targeted, relevant advertisements.

Let me break this down a little more:

- You looked at golf clubs in the past - bingo! ... you’re interested in golf …
- You comparison shopped to find the exclusive Wii (likely couldn’t find one) – voila, you’re a Wii fan for life …
- Booked a vacation … crikey, you’re into the outdoors …

Your digital snowball will continue to grow as it gathers speed.

The ISPs are monetizing your traffic and data … to make even more money. Are you seeing a reduction in your monthly bill? Hhmm, didn’t think so.

And you just thought they were providing ‘ping’ to the house … Nope, read the fine print.

Underpinning this is “deep-packet inspection”. Babel-fish translation – they used to just look at the address and ‘header’ record when you went to a site, now we’re going to look inside the documents, messages … Equivalent of someone opening your mail … you OK with that? Read the fine print.

The article goes on to emphasize “…the companies involved say customers' privacy is protected because no personally identifying details are released. The extent of the practice is difficult to gauge because some service providers involved have declined to discuss their practices. Many Web surfers, moreover, probably have little idea they are being monitored.”

Wait. Privacy is protected because no personally identifiable information is released? Doesn’t that mean they have the personally identifiable information? If they don’t need it, don’t collect it … However, here’s the rub. They actually have had the personally identifiable information all along – linked to your credit card for payment for the service.

The issue here is that they are now collecting MORE information. Read the fine print.

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