Charter communications, an internet service provider (ISP), announced this week that it will share it's customers web browsing data with NebuAd, to show ads based on customer’s web browsing behavior.
(Note: I wrote about the ISP based behavioral targeting, NebuAd and privacy issues related to ISP based behavioral targeting in my previous blog posts).
Charter communication sent a letter to its subscribers in Fort Worth, Texas, San Luis Obispo, California, Oxford, Massachusetts and Newtown, Connecticut telling them it will collect their web surfing data and use to show ads related to their interests. Charter said it will start testing the system within 30 days and will make a decision whether to introduce it to its 2.8 million Internet customers a few months after that.
One big issue I see with Charter’s Behavioral Targeting is that they are automatically opting in the users. Even though they have sent the letters to customers how many their customers will actually read those letters?
As I have written in past, companies need to build trust with consumers, show them the value in behavioral targeting and then use an opt-in system. Charter is clearly taking the route that other companies have taken which, in my opion, will raise huge privacy concerns.
If anybody who doesn’t want to be tracked will need to explicitly opt-out of the system by providing their name, address etc. The opt-out uses a cookie, so if a consumer deletes a cookie or buys a new computer or uses a computer other than the one which has cookie then he/she will be automatically tracked. What I did not understand was, why do consumers need to provide their name, address etc to opt-out if it is just relying on a cookie. Can anybody from Charter please clarify this?
In march, I wrote about British Telco, coming under fire for engaging in Behavioral Targeting; let’s see what kind of repercussion we see with Charter communication.
Showing posts with label ISP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ISP. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
British ISPs get into Behavioral Targeting
According to Herald Tribune three major internet service providers in Britain (British Telecommunications, TalkTalk and Virgin Media) have jumped into the growing Behavioral Targeting and Online Advertising space.
Phorm , the company behind the BT technology, created an online advertising platform called the Open Internet Exchange. The company will use ISPs data to target right ads on the websites (publishers) participating in this network. These three providers, that represent two-thirds (66+%) of internet access market in Britain, have agreed to provide the customer’s surfing data to this internet exchange. The exchange will be open to any website that wants to join so smaller publishers will also be able to derive value from behavioral targeting.
ISP based BT has certain advantages compared to traditional (cookie based) BT Networks (e.g. Revenue Science, Tacoda, Blue Lithium etc.)
Privacy Issues
However, ISP based ad networks also pose a bigger privacy threat than traditional BT networks, as I wrote in my post on NebuAd, another ISP based BT network. NebuAd, one of the first company to enter into ISP based advertising. NebuAd responded to my post and said that the data is anonymized so there is no issue of privacy. Phorm promises the same level of anonymity but I still think that the chances of privacy leaks are more in an ISP based network than they are in a traditional BT network.
Phorm also says that consumers are are in control, they can switch relevance 'off' or 'on' at any time at a site called Webwise.com, site that educates users on how ISP based advertising works. This is somewhat in line with what I predicted earlier this year, where I said:
Comments?
Phorm , the company behind the BT technology, created an online advertising platform called the Open Internet Exchange. The company will use ISPs data to target right ads on the websites (publishers) participating in this network. These three providers, that represent two-thirds (66+%) of internet access market in Britain, have agreed to provide the customer’s surfing data to this internet exchange. The exchange will be open to any website that wants to join so smaller publishers will also be able to derive value from behavioral targeting.
ISP based BT has certain advantages compared to traditional (cookie based) BT Networks (e.g. Revenue Science, Tacoda, Blue Lithium etc.)
- Reach - ISP based BT networks have a bigger reach (granted major ISP participate in it - the one by Phorm does have that reach) compared to the likes of Revenue Science and Tacoda. Even though Revenue Science and Tacoda claim to reach 60%+ internet users, I don’t think they do collect data on and target 60+% of internet users. With their partnerships with other ad servers, they might be capable of reaching 60% of internet users but that is to just to serve any ads not collect behavior and serve targeted ads. ISP on the other hand can collect data on all their users and hence show targeted ads.
- Relevance – BT’s promise to provide relevant ads to the online visitors. Networks that work with large number of different kinds of sites (different verticals) can collect wide variety of user behavior data and accurately identify users segments. ISP based BT networks have the potential to collect much richer data (because of their reach) than any network like Revenue Science and Tacoda ever can. Revenue Science and Tacoda collect data on select sites (those that participate in the network) while ISP’s collect data on any site that is accessed by their customers. ISP can better understand their customers’ behaviors and hence serve more relevant ads than traditional BT networks.
Privacy Issues
However, ISP based ad networks also pose a bigger privacy threat than traditional BT networks, as I wrote in my post on NebuAd, another ISP based BT network. NebuAd, one of the first company to enter into ISP based advertising. NebuAd responded to my post and said that the data is anonymized so there is no issue of privacy. Phorm promises the same level of anonymity but I still think that the chances of privacy leaks are more in an ISP based network than they are in a traditional BT network.
Phorm also says that consumers are are in control, they can switch relevance 'off' or 'on' at any time at a site called Webwise.com, site that educates users on how ISP based advertising works. This is somewhat in line with what I predicted earlier this year, where I said:
Behavioral Targeting will continue to grow this year, however, there will be greater push for protecting consumer privacy. The privacy concerns will result in two things:Phorm is moving in the right direction by providing proper education (I mentioned the need for education in my post on Google and Doubleclick) and an opportunity to opt-out in an easy way. I think soon we will see the actual opt-out link on the ads served by Behavioral Targeting networks.
- Clear instructions (or links) on Behaviorally Targeted Ads that will allow behaviorally targeted visitors to opt-out of Behaviorally Targeted advertising.
- Opt-in system – Some networks (maybe new ones) will move towards opt-in rather than opt-out (I favor opt-in over opt-out as I wrote in past. So I am making this prediction that this year networks will pay attention to it). A new type of networks or services might come up which will allow users to be an active participant in BT and control who can use their online behavioral data and how they can use it.
Comments?
Sunday, December 09, 2007
ISP based Behavioral Targeting
In an articles titled Watching What You See on the Web Wall Street Journal talks about ISP (Internet Service Provider) based behavioral targeting.
ISP based behavioral targeting idea has been kicked around for some time and NebuAd is one of the first company that made a product know as “deep-packet inspection boxes” for ISP to track user behavior online and then serve ads based on these behaviors.
This kind of targeting enables ISP’s to be a player in growing behavioral targeting market and generate a new stream of revenue.
This kind of technology is beyond simply using anonymous tracking. ISP do have a lot more information than just the browsing behavior. They have name, location, age, social security number (SSN). They know what time users login to their machine, when is the internet being used, what kind of sites are visited at what times, which sites provided information before a user made a purchase etc etc. This is far more information than companies like Revenue Science or Tacoda has and obviously can provide better targeting than Revenue Science or Tacoda can do.
However this also raises far more privacy concerns than companies like Revenue Science and Tacoda raise.
According to the article
The technology does raise privacy issues. The Internet-service providers often know other information about consumers, such as their names, locations and age and income ranges, which can be very valuable to potential advertisers, especially when combined with Web browsing habits. "Some of these [Internet equipment] guys are traveling in dangerous territory," says Emily Riley, an advertising analyst with Jupiter Research. "Should one company have all of that data in one place? It's a little troubling."
Other than user privacy there is another huge issue that this article did not talk about. In a network like Revenue Science or Tacoda publishers and advertisers (data providers) have to opt-in to participate. If a publisher/advertiser does not want to enable advertisers to use their data then they simply do not participate in the network. Advertisers can also choose to just use their site’s data to be used to only power their own advertisements. E.g Delta airlines can choose to participate in a retargeting campaign on a network like Revenue Science. They can retarget all the users who viewed fares to a particular destination but left the site without buying the ticket. To do so they will allow the network to collect information on all those users whom they want to target and then only allow the network to use those behaviors (users) to target their ads only. Alaska airlines cannot use Revenue Science and target their ads based on the behaviors on Delta airlines network. This is an explicit agreement between the publisher/advertiser and network.
However in case of ISP based targeting; data providers (publishers, advertisers and other sites) don’t have to opt in. They are opted in by default. Using the example above, a user’s behavior on Delta airlines site (and also information about who clicked on Delta’s ads across internet) is captured without Delta Airlines explicit approval. Now, ISP’s can use that information to power Alaska airlines advertisement and drive all those users, who could have purchased their tickets from Delta, to Alaska airlines. I am sure Delta won’t be happy about it. This applies to every single site on internet, they do not have an option their data will be used and in most cases to power competitors ads, this is a huge deal. I think it is, what do you think? I am sure there will be advertiser backlash too with this kind of technology.
It is also not clear to me if the ISPs will work with individual publishers or networks and provide behavioral data to power their ads on publishers inventory or if they will override publishers inventory with their own ads (which will probably cause sudden death of ISP based targeting) or if they will do popups (pop under) creating new inventory. NebuAd does however have a service for publishers where publishers can use their services on their own inventory, however I am not clear how ISPs plan to use it.
As I predicted earlier this year Behavioral Targeting has become a very common term among marketers. To cash in on this phenomenon a lot of new technologies and companies are springing up, I expect this trend to continue in 2008, we will see more innovation in coming month. Mobile and TV behavioral targeting is next in line too.
Questions/Comments?
ISP based behavioral targeting idea has been kicked around for some time and NebuAd is one of the first company that made a product know as “deep-packet inspection boxes” for ISP to track user behavior online and then serve ads based on these behaviors.
This kind of targeting enables ISP’s to be a player in growing behavioral targeting market and generate a new stream of revenue.
This kind of technology is beyond simply using anonymous tracking. ISP do have a lot more information than just the browsing behavior. They have name, location, age, social security number (SSN). They know what time users login to their machine, when is the internet being used, what kind of sites are visited at what times, which sites provided information before a user made a purchase etc etc. This is far more information than companies like Revenue Science or Tacoda has and obviously can provide better targeting than Revenue Science or Tacoda can do.
However this also raises far more privacy concerns than companies like Revenue Science and Tacoda raise.
According to the article
The technology does raise privacy issues. The Internet-service providers often know other information about consumers, such as their names, locations and age and income ranges, which can be very valuable to potential advertisers, especially when combined with Web browsing habits. "Some of these [Internet equipment] guys are traveling in dangerous territory," says Emily Riley, an advertising analyst with Jupiter Research. "Should one company have all of that data in one place? It's a little troubling."
Other than user privacy there is another huge issue that this article did not talk about. In a network like Revenue Science or Tacoda publishers and advertisers (data providers) have to opt-in to participate. If a publisher/advertiser does not want to enable advertisers to use their data then they simply do not participate in the network. Advertisers can also choose to just use their site’s data to be used to only power their own advertisements. E.g Delta airlines can choose to participate in a retargeting campaign on a network like Revenue Science. They can retarget all the users who viewed fares to a particular destination but left the site without buying the ticket. To do so they will allow the network to collect information on all those users whom they want to target and then only allow the network to use those behaviors (users) to target their ads only. Alaska airlines cannot use Revenue Science and target their ads based on the behaviors on Delta airlines network. This is an explicit agreement between the publisher/advertiser and network.
However in case of ISP based targeting; data providers (publishers, advertisers and other sites) don’t have to opt in. They are opted in by default. Using the example above, a user’s behavior on Delta airlines site (and also information about who clicked on Delta’s ads across internet) is captured without Delta Airlines explicit approval. Now, ISP’s can use that information to power Alaska airlines advertisement and drive all those users, who could have purchased their tickets from Delta, to Alaska airlines. I am sure Delta won’t be happy about it. This applies to every single site on internet, they do not have an option their data will be used and in most cases to power competitors ads, this is a huge deal. I think it is, what do you think? I am sure there will be advertiser backlash too with this kind of technology.
It is also not clear to me if the ISPs will work with individual publishers or networks and provide behavioral data to power their ads on publishers inventory or if they will override publishers inventory with their own ads (which will probably cause sudden death of ISP based targeting) or if they will do popups (pop under) creating new inventory. NebuAd does however have a service for publishers where publishers can use their services on their own inventory, however I am not clear how ISPs plan to use it.
As I predicted earlier this year Behavioral Targeting has become a very common term among marketers. To cash in on this phenomenon a lot of new technologies and companies are springing up, I expect this trend to continue in 2008, we will see more innovation in coming month. Mobile and TV behavioral targeting is next in line too.
Questions/Comments?
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