This morning you opened a news article, and an amazing thing happened due to one visit to that website. Data from this single visit was sent to 10 different companies, including Microsoft and Google subsidiaries, some traffic-logging sites, and various smaller ad firms. Almost spontaneously, these companies can record your visit, and put ads made to measure for your eyes specifically on your social media, and add to the ever-growing online file about you.
A new development but surely a one used by brands all around the world, online behavioural advertising is an important arrow in any social media marketer’s quiver. In simple words, online behavioural advertising or commonly known as targeted advertisements uses a person’s online behaviour, i.e. what they interact with, watch and click on to show them individually targeted advertisements. This tool is increasingly gaining attention of consumers, scholars, and policy makers, mainly due to its infringement on a consumer’s privacy. And why would it not be so? This technology can even find out whether or not you’ve opened a mail.
To give an instance, if you were to look at a travel website to book tickets from Mumbai to Delhi, chances are your details will be captured and you will be shown advertisements with the details to filled in on other websites and your social media. This is mainly done through third-party cookies, something all of us mindlessly click on and agree to while using websites. This allows the website to give your information to third parties and let them show you advertisements based on your interests. They might not store your name, but there is quite a lot of money spent on the data that is collected about you.
As the documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ says, “when the product is free, you are the product”. Social media and most other websites are offered to you for free. The main business model of social media and other websites using this concept is based on prediction. Predicting what you will click on, based on what you’ve clicked on is the way they earn. This clairvoyance is the way they earn money. The amount is staggering, given that there are 3.80 billion people active on social media, anyone with this information can accurately influence you to buy.
Unfortunately, this is just the starting, people have been quick to realise the ill-effects of this platform. Everyone knows about the social media fiasco when Trump was elected. Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook, makes a frightening allegation- “Russia didn’t hack Facebook; it simply used the platform”. This platform is giving the entire world, an access to influencing people, even 1% of their cognitive with an idea they want to implant. Another by-product, called dark advertising has come under fire recently after reports surfaced that Trump used this feature of Facebook for election campaigns to dissuade African Americans from voting. Facebook introduced this tool in 2012, that allowed marketers to create carefully targeted posts, that only show up to that particular audience and are, otherwise hidden from view of the public, effectively making this untraceable. As of now, 90% of Twitter ads, 85% of Facebook ads and 60% of YouTube ads are "dark," effectively creating a complete blind spot for competitive brands and marketers as well as consumers who wish to get an idea of what the brand is marketing.
What this has ensued is a lot of feelings of unrest, and a major concern for privacy. In a study analysing the perception and buying behaviour of a consumer on the basis of advertising on Facebook, it was revealed that, though consumers were aware of Facebook advertisements placed on their Newsfeed wall, they did not click on the advertisements or proceed with purchases due to the security and privacy reasons. This is hampering brands who use this type of advertising as well and diminishing the trust a consumer would have in them.
The solution may sound easy but in reality is difficult to execute. A brand or a marketer has to understand the difference between showing advertisements based on interests and showing advertisements based on intimate information collected without authorization that can hamper their relations with the consumer. Having the correct ethic as a brand will ensure that less regulations are placed on how advertising is done online. It is also important to show a consumer that their data is being collected and explain what it is used for. Hiding that their data is being collected under fine prints and privacy policies will hamper the trust they have, and a consumer would only buy from a brand they’d trust. Finding the correct balance between personalisation and over personalisation, is the way forward.
Ghazal Bhootra is a second year BBA LLB (Hons.) student at NMIMS School of Law, Mumbai. She handles PR and Design for committees in her college and has an avid interest in photography. She has a published article in a UGC Care journal on the topic of “A study on the Hedonism promoted by Fast Fashion Brands”. Currently researching on target advertisements and consumer buying behaviour along with other legal topics, she loves researching on contemporary subjects and reading classic novels.
Fascinating read!
Thank you so much Navya for giving me an oppurtunity to write for your amazing blog!