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Google to Track TV Viewers More Closely

Posted by timothy on from the from-each-according-to-his-quintile dept.

GalacticNoob writes "According to this post, Google is about to launch a TV advertising program that will let advertisers target audiences based on demographics including their household income. A satellite TV company called Echostar is working with credit-reporting company Equifax to cross-reference shows watched with income and buying habits (based on using Equifax's data)."

23 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Absolutely absurd by Ron_Fitzgerald · · Score: 1, Insightful

    A satellite TV company called Echostar is working with credit-reporting company Equifax to cross-reference shows watched with income and buying habits (based on using Equifax's data)

    --
    ~ Ron Fitzgerald
    1. Re:Absolutely absurd by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      "I don't see why people view these things so harshly. Think about it, now it means ads will actually hit their target audience Would you rather see ads about things you have no care for, nor afford?"

      Well, for one thing...what the hell is a credit reporting service doing SELLING my fucking info??

      I mean....I really don't like the idea that the big three track that stuff, but, I can reluctantly live with it as a means to give a reasonable (usually) score of a credit risk when you need a loan, etc.

      However, I think this information should be restricted to only that use, and it should be treated as pretty much privacy act level information, and nothing of it should ever be given out without the expressed consent of the individual in question.

      I'm not one to usually ask for new restrictive laws, but, in this case, I wish we could mandate that a person's information is THEIRS....and cannot be bought, sold, traded or used in a fashion such as this. I mean, c'mon, why not just also combine it with info that the IRS and SS has on us too in the US? Aside from the difference in it being a commercial vs governmental affair...the privacy intrusion is analogous.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    2. Re:Absolutely absurd by Artifakt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ads which are right for someone economically may not be right for them in other ways. Take a couple who can easily afford to have several children and drive a big SUV - but imagine they are supporters of sustainable energy, zero population growth, and so on. They've already committed to having only one child, they want a fuel efficient vehicle, preferably a hybrid or better. They are not in the market for most of the things which are going to be targeted at them based solely on income.
          How can the ads be targeted at them too? There are several (mostly bad) possibilities. The advertisers could write them off, as not a market. Right now, advertisers ignore whole age groups in just this way. Nobody is going to pitch Axe style body sprays at men old enough to think of Old Spice or Right Guard when they buy a deodorant. When they don't target ANY of the ads at you, they don't target ANY of the programs at you either. Trying to hit a few big groups with descressionary spending power is why shows such as Survivor spawn dozens of variants, or TV goes through phases where its all Hospital shows or Forensic shows.
            Or they could get more data. If they only knew how that couple I made up had voted as well, maybe they could get a handle on what they want to buy. Even better, if they know how committed the couple was to their ideals, how much they were willing to spend supporting a candidate or cause, just think how useful that would be in determining how much they would spend on the right product. And, they are already getting one type of data most people think is private, why not go after voting or medical information too?

      --
      Who is John Cabal?
  2. Dish by Nethead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Echostar is Dish Network.

    --
    -- I have a private email server in my basement.
    1. Re:Dish by pete-classic · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Who you worked for doesn't bear on the facts. About a year ago Echostar broke up into Dish Network, which owns all of the service, advertising, and programming contracts and Echostar Technologies, which controls the satellites, manufactures the set tops, and controls the underlying technology.

      I believe employees of both companies continue to use @echostar.com address.

      We don't need you to accept this in order for it to be true.

      -Peter

  3. Do no evil? by Dachannien · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Targeted advertising based on our credit history and income?

    I'm pretty sure this counts as "evil".

    1. Re:Do no evil? by owlnation · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Targeted advertising based on our credit history and income? I'm pretty sure this counts as "evil".

      Considering that Equifax is no stranger to being fined for breaking the law, I'd say it actually counts as "Evil" with a capital "E".

      Google needs competition. Their honeymoon period is over.

    2. Re:Do no evil? by maxume · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Anybody who is concerned about whether Google is evil or not better not have a credit card or watch television anyway.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    3. Re:Do no evil? by Lux · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Advertizing-based company undermines user privacy to make money. Film at 11.

      Seriously... this is why I'm staying away from Chrome. If Google gets big enough in the browser to start dictating de-facto standards, my privacy will suffer.

    4. Re:Do no evil? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Is there any data on us these days that isnt open to be sold to the highest bidder. Its like open season info sharing on people.

      "credit-reporting company Equifax to cross-reference shows watched with income and buying habits (based on using Equifax's data)."

      So since when the hell is our credit card buying habits, open info to be sold to be highest bidder?! ... what next, I buy a book on politics and then that data gets bought by the government to workout my political point of views?

      Maybe we need a wiki leaks style site to monitor and share the behaviour of company directors who see it as fair game to share our details. Play them at their own game.

    5. Re:Do no evil? by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, but TFA states this will happen indirectly. They are not talking about looking up your credit history and deciding which ads to push to you, but rather one partnership is going to use the credit history to decide which shows people in different income brackets tend to watch, and it is this information is going to be used by google to decide upon which adverts go with which shows.

      Oh, I get it. They're synergistically leveraging their core competencies to alleviate market deficits of cross-sectionalized yield-based advertisorial programming. Why didn't someone just say so?

      --
      This guy's the limit!
  4. For now... by cjfs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Desai stresses that all this data is made anonymous, so it certainly won't be possible to target specific households with ads...

    ... yet

    1. Re:For now... by EthanV2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      won't be possible to target specific households with ads...

      Wait, I thought that was the whole idea of this system...

  5. Scott Adams said... by GMonkeyLouie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Humanity has precious little time left before marketers become so astute at selling directly to each and every consumer that we become powerless to resist their offerings. The only defense we will have will be to hide from all advertising, which will require curling up into a tiny little ball in a dark corner.

    1. Re:Scott Adams said... by maxume · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm pretty sure that I'd be happy to punch anybody who smiled at me and tried to sell me a ring-tone directly in the face.

      The thing to remember about Scott Adams is that he loves to troll his own blog.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  6. Re:if I see ONE commercial for a loan... by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Perhaps you would prefer a direct call to your cell phone offering such items...

    Oh, I almost forgot - I think your car warranty has expired, but it is not too late to extent it! This is your 2nd notice!

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  7. Re:Impressive journalistic incompetency by gd23ka · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Echostar is Dish Network but maybe the journalist didn't want people to associate the brand "Dish Network"
    with what people could potentially perceive as evil. Most are not as sophisticated as you - and I'm not being
    sarcastic towards you here -, they might just read the article, lean back and turn on their TV (powered by
    Dish of course) and never make the connection nor would it occur to them to follow up and find out about
    Echostar.

  8. Re:Is this even legal? by Lunatrik · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Or, *build your own* DVR. MythTV, SageTV - solutions for everyone, tracking free. What I'm more scared of is Equifax releasing credit information.

  9. TV? Whats that? by Ender77 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is why I gave up TV and local radio a couple of years ago. It stopped being entertainment and just became an ad machine. Now, I just watch tv through the internet, ad free. MUHAHAHAHAHA.

    1. Re:TV? Whats that? by AnalPerfume · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ad funded TV has always been about sticking eyeballs to the screen to watch the adverts the companies pay for. The mechanism that draws (and holds) the eyeballs to the screen is the programming. When the programming is half-decent and the adverts less in-your-face it's an acceptable balance for most; when that tips the other way round it puts people off watching at all, or pushes them to use blocking technology. Most already zone out adverts, so advertisers have to use increasingly more invasive techniques to get noticed.

  10. Do no evil by Krakadoom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So "do no evil" is pretty much over, right? Seems every new move Google makes these days is the same sort of thing we'd be criticizing other scumbag companies for.

  11. Re:Good and Bad TV Advertisements by robo_mojo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    God help the person whose dogs were just killed in a freak pesticide accident who now gets pet grooming/product commercials 24/7 to remind them of their now dead pets. Or maybe the guy who borrows from his 401k to pay for the burial of his wife and then starts getting ads for retirement planning.

    Statistical outliers are not relevant to advertisers.

    I'm certain that there are serial killers who had less reason to do their killing than what these people are capable of stirring in the souls of the unwashed masses.

    Sounds dreadful. Television is certainly not worth killing for.

  12. Re:Good and Bad TV Advertisements by AnalPerfume · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Google would then reply that the more data they harvest, the more likely this can be avoided. This then leads to complaints that privacy is over-rated when it comes to making money.