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Google to Track TV Viewers More Closely
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)."
Echostar is Dish Network.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Targeted advertising based on our credit history and income?
I'm pretty sure this counts as "evil".
Desai stresses that all this data is made anonymous, so it certainly won't be possible to target specific households with ads...
... yet
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.
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.
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.
Or, *build your own* DVR. MythTV, SageTV - solutions for everyone, tracking free. What I'm more scared of is Equifax releasing credit information.
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.
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.
Statistical outliers are not relevant to advertisers.
Sounds dreadful. Television is certainly not worth killing for.
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.
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.........
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?