Blogs

Back in the 1990's, when too many "Netizens" proclaimed that the Internet would be a radically new medium and freed from commercial restaints of mass media, people like Kathryn Montgomery and I knew they were naive.  It was clear--both from what marketers were saying at the time and the history of electronic media in the 20th Century--that the same commercial forces that had undermined the public interest potential of radio, broadcasting TV and cable would help shape "cyberspace."  That's one reason why my group during the mid-1990's spearheaded efforts to regu

Retargeting--following people site to site--is growing in EU as a result of growth of ad exchanges there.  See Criteo mentioned below, and check out Google's case study with the company that specializes in stealthfully shadowing people online:

Are brands privacy and consumer protection deaf?  Here's what Pepsi's leading social media marketing executive writes in Ad Age today [excerpt]:

Data collection from citizens and consumers for commercial purposes is one of the U.S.'s most successful industries.  Yet despite the implications of deploying stealth and ubiquitous surveillance systems, US companies are lagging dealing with both the privacy and civil liberties implications of such investments.  For example, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Redpoint Partners and WPP just inv

It's important to understand what's really going behind the scenes at Facebook, given its tremendous reach and influence.  So the recent remarks of its COO Sheryl Sandberg at the Association of National Advertisers conference is instructive.  Here's some choice excerpts via Ad Age (and remember who is "listening in" to what you say and do via the world's most popular so

One of the characteristics of the digital marketing and media era is the role advertisers play creating and shaping content, applications and even platforms/devices.  We are back to a time when tobacco companies that sponsored "I Love Lucy" on TV and sponsors on radio set the programming agenda.  While Pepsi is by no means the only major advertiser shaping content creation, given our FTC complaint this week it's worth examining how they think about their digital role. 

Data Protection commisioners and others working on privacy will soon meet in Mexico City.  The data commissioners are heavily lobbied by industry, and we have found that they aren't given the kind of honest information about what's really going on with data collection and the online advertising environment.  That's one reason why NGOs from civil society organize the Public Voice event, coordinated by EPIC and others.  I will be on one of the panel

Here are revealing excerpts from the recent Omnicom Media and Facebook event in London.  It illustrates the dangers of powerful forces shaping our digital media experiences without the kind of disclosure, user control, transparency and privacy rules required for democratic societies.  Excerpts:
 

The food and beverage industry is in the forefront of using digital media marketing, including data collection (social media, mobile, gaming, etc) to target youth and others.  Anyone who thinks that the mobile applications arena doesn't pose serious privacy and consumer protection concerns--from kids, teens to adults--just isn't following the growth (and consequences) of locational marketing.  We can't resist running this