Hey You! Stop Complaining about Online Behavioral Tracking!

I have to get this out.

There has been a lot said about online tracking and behavioral targeting lately.

"What's that you say? Evil marketers are tracking
my every move with secret spyware that
will one day hunt me down and kill me?!"

People generally seem to be a little creeped out when they hear about how marketers track their behavior online. They seem to think that [evil] marketers sit in their lairs, plotting ways to gain users' personal information so they can one day use it to steal their money or identity, infect their computers with viruses, or watch them while they sleep.

Let me preface the rest of this post by saying that I am all for standardizing behavioral targeting for online marketers. What makes me agitated are the people that want to completely abolish the practice altogether because they think it's "creepy" or unsafe.

The simple truth is that online marketers are just trying to do a better job by targeting audiences more effectively.  


Here's the big, bad secret from within the belly of the marketing beast: 99% of online marketers are simply tracking what you do online, without your personal information, so that they can serve you ads that you want to see!


Of course, there will always be mal-intents that use nefarious techniques to hack or steal information to take advantage of the system - but isn't this the case in every line of work? We have bad apple doctors that take advantage of the system, corrupt police officers that do the same, and don't get me started on politicians.

Let's leave the evil planning
to the professionals, okay?

But not once have I sat in an online display strategic planning session and heard someone say "Let's gather all of Jane Doe's personal information we can, eat some popcorn and watch while she goes to eBay! Then we can use the information to go on a shopping spree!" and never have I uttered "You know what? Let's track this audience behavior online and then show them ads of things that are completely unrelated to what they're looking at!"

Unfortunately, people like to get scared about these things and they love to crusade against any perceived threat, even without knowing all of the details.

Here are a few facts about online tracking and marketing:

1. Real, reputable online marketers and online behavioral advertising entities do not and can not gather your personal information. This is against the rules. Online marketers do not know your name, address, or phone number, especially if you don't willingly give it to them. Your browsing information is collected as anonymous "cookie" data. *Update* Check out this link, which shows how Google cookies you and places you into audience buckets. You can also opt-out from here (must have gmail account): http: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/view
2. This cookie data is only stored for a limited amount of time, usually up to 30 days before you are cleared from the targeting system. 
3. You can see who is collecting your data by either looking at the code on the site, by using a viewing tool, or by simply looking at the privacy policy. Usually the companies that are collecting your data will have specific codes placed at the top or bottom of the website you are looking at (in the website code).
4. You can clear your cookie data whenever you want! If you're sick of seeing a particular ad, clear your cache using your browser's settings.
5. Marketers can only get your email address and/or personal information if you opt-in or signup somewhere on the website. In this case you have most likely read and agreed to the privacy language.
6. Most of the time, you are being remarketed to or targeted automatically as a bigger audience segment based on results and statistics. This means that an automated system puts you into a bucket based on your online activity and serves you ads because of that. The only information that comes through in the end is whether or not that bucket or ad (likely a combination of both) converted to a lead or sale.
7. The internet is free, in part, because of online marketing. It's a tough pill to swallow for some, but let's be honest here, the less money that is spent by advertisers online, the greater the chance that you will be paying for good online content. To add to that, online behavior tracking makes those marketing programs work better, which means advertisers spend more money, and you get more free content! Amazing, isn't it?

The bottom line is, YES, online marketers are trying to sell you things. However, let's say you are a 55 year old woman - would you rather see a banner ad for men's sports equipment, or an ad about women's shoes that are similar to the ones you just looked at on zappos.com? (obviously I'm making some generalizations here). 

Instead of crusading against all behavioral targeting online, I think we can all agree that in some forms, online targeting is helpful and effective for both the advertisers and the users themselves. With the right standards in place, everyone gets what they want.