Whats so scary about being tracked?

The idea of internet based behaviour tracking, is to many users, an invasion of privacy. With the introduction of new technology pioneered by the likes of Phorm, this concern over privacy is only likely to grow. What are we so worried about? I don’t think I do or look at anything particularly devious during the normal course of the day.

Or is it that people are worried that a few elite marketers (irrational, as behavioural tracking cannot identify an individual specifically and no personal data can be extracted) will know too much about us…But is it any worse than the hair dresser using a CRM programme to remember how you have your tea, the name of your partner or where you last went on holiday? Also I wonder how many have social network profiles, blogs, and YouTube these people have uploaded. 

We all openly give away lots of information about ourselves. In the same way brands have to realise they might not be interesting to consumers – consumers need to realise, or be shown that as an individual they probably aren’t that interesting to brands. This is obviously a catch 22.

But most of that isn’t the problem is it? In the UK (and probably the rest of the world) we like to feel as if we can’t be pigeon holed and that advertising cannot affect our behaviour… So when faced with highly targeted advertisements that we might actually find useful, we’re sent into a flurry thinking that we’re going to be tricked.

I for one welcome more targeted advertising; it might mean that Chrome won’t try and advertise to me when I’m already using its browser!

So our challenge as advertisers (as it’s the brands the consumers will see, not the advertising networks) to convince consumers that targeted advertising is a step in the right direction. This starts with making sure our adverts are more useful and interesting!