3 April 2009
“Don’t be evil,” runs the Google motto – a tough one to live up to. Not being evil has had to make allowances for Chinese censorship of the web in the past, and now extends to following users’ surfing habits to deliver more relevant adverts – “behavioural advertising”.
Google’s not the first. Phorm’s foray into behavioural advertising with BT customers last autumn already caused something of a stir. The big question is: are consumers comfortable with being spied on? And, as marketers, are we happy to pry? Founder of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee says Phorm is like “allowing them to put a television camera in your room”. Is this level of surveillance ethical?
Google’s new trial of behavioural advertising with partner websites and YouTube does offer an opt-out for consumers, and this new advertising model is likely to be the boon that marketers need right now. As technology improves and data capture escalates, behavioural marketing will become a devastatingly powerful tool.
So what should we regard as unethical? While the law favours opt-in over opt-out, it really is down to marketers to decide what constitutes acceptable behaviour. “Don’t be evil” is the right attitude, but how do we comply? The debate is suddenly heating up.
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