All for the Right Ads
With the influx of technology in our day to day lives, advertisements have had to make adjustments as to how they market, target, and reach their consumers. As a result, advertisers turned to technology as well as social media to not only reach their consumers, but also gain their attention.
However, in order for advertisers to successfully gain the attention of their target customers, a certain level of tracking as well as data collection must be conducted. This allows for the right people to be able to see the right ads that are relevant to their age, location, gender, interests, socioeconomic status, and much more.
First, we must address what trackers are and how they work. The most common and familiar are tracking cookies. Oftentimes, a website may ask a user to accept all cookies before they use the rest of the website. Ultimately, a cookie allows data to be collected from the user. This includes information such as location, purchase behavior, browsing history, activity, and more. The information collected is used for marketing purposes to create more directly targeted ads.
While there are benefits that result from tracking and data collection, such as more personalized ads, is there a greater cost for the benefits that tracking creates? Does there come a time when this tracking crosses a line? Is it ever unethical for advertisers to breach privacy by collecting certain data from their consumers in order to better their own agenda? As advertisers, specifically as the future of the advertising industry, we should be cognisant about the ethical and moral dilemmas that result due to all the data collection that is conducted on everyone.
One could argue that cookies and behavioral tracking devices help both the consumer and the advertiser since each party is able to get what they want: more targeted and helpful ads and less ads that are irrelevant to a user. But is it worth it?
Many users aren’t even fully aware of the amount of data that is taken from them, all for the right ads. While there are rules and regulations in place to protect user privacy, consent must be given before any cookies are applied. This goes back to many websites who ask users to “accept all cookies” before proceeding with the rest of the website. Many consumers aren’t even fully aware of what they are accepting when they do so, since they are more concerned about carrying on with their intended reason for being on the website.
While tracking cookies and data collection isn’t going anywhere any time soon, and there are major benefits that tracking provides for advertisers and marketers, it is still important to keep in mind the moral dilemma that comes with tracking users' online behavior. We need to ask ourselves if there is ever a time where this can cross a line and breach user privacy. It is important to utilize the benefits that technology provides, but abusing the resources for one's own gain should be avoided at all cost.
Ultimately, it comes down to trusting that the information collected by advertisers and marketers will be used for the sake of having a less cluttered stream of content being thrown at consumers 24/7. As the consumer, we can only hope that the data collected from our online footprint won’t be used against us, and strictly to give us all the right ads.
Sources:
ADV 460 with professor Mike Yao
