Inside pitches
One reason advertisers are spending more online is because they can target their ads to the people most likely to be interested in them. Some companies help advertisers put their messages in the right context -- for example, by showing Ford Motor Co. ads to people searching for information about local traffic, not to those looking up recipes. Others target ads according to viewers’ past Web browsing, observing what individuals do on numerous websites and customizing the ads they see accordingly.
Such “behavioral targeting” has drawn the attention of the Federal Trade Commission, which recently held two days of hearings on the subject. Nine privacy groups also have asked the commission to create a “do not track” list that would let people block the software used for behavioral targeting from being placed on their computers.
There’s nothing wrong with targeting as a concept, or with the technologies used to carry it out without gathering personally identifiable data. Showing different ads to different people based on their interests is a good thing. The problem is when firms use the technology in not so benign ways -- such as surreptitiously offering the same product to different people on different terms, based on their assumed race or age.
Facebook, a popular social network site, is providing a model for both the right and the wrong way to do behavior-based advertising. Last week, the company unveiled a novel approach to monitoring and targeting, enabling advertisers to build pitches around what Facebook members do on and off the network. For example, when member Jones visits Blockbuster.com and orders a “Ratatouille” DVD, Facebook could send an alert to all of Jones’ friends on the network saying “Jones ordered ‘Ratatouille’ at Blockbuster,” accompanied by an ad for the video store. Before it did so, however, Blockbuster would have to obtain Jones’ explicit permission. So far, so good.
Facebook also invites advertisers to set up pages on the network and sign up friends (“fans,” in Facebook parlance), who then may be used as pitchmen for their products. But Facebook doesn’t disclose this to members. For example, if Jones signs up to be a fan of Blockbuster, the video chain can use Jones’ name and Facebook picture in ads on the network without asking permission. Liking a company, however, doesn’t equate to wanting to sell its products. At least Facebook’s members know where to complain. The same can’t be said for Internet users whose hidden profiles secretly cast them in a disadvantageous light.
