MKT310- W5 Post And Response

Marisa Bourn

1. Within the past 5 days I have learned so much about digital privacy from Note to Self's series. Although most people do not like how much data the Internet has on us, it almost feels as if there is nothing we can do about it. We are giving so many websites free data on us without even realizing it. I learned some applications can access our contacts and sell them, which is probably why we get so many spam phone calls. We give away our rights in just a few clicks, invisibly.  We live in a world where our age, address, and family tree is public knowledge. On day five I learned that the United Kingdom created an "investigative powers bill" which keeps record of every single click you make online for a year. Founder of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners Lee, finds this bill a massive invasion of privacy. He created a plan to keep our personal data in personal data stores. We would have the right to sell our own data if we want to and we can have it back at any time. He wants the World Wide Web to be the utopia he had always had in his head.

2.  Social Media advertising is so effective because the Internet has infinite knowledge about us. Websites use cookies to collect data on peoples searches and clicks. With this data they are able to advertise items or services similar to what we have previously found interest in. I see this all of the time. I was shopping for bracelets online, and the next ad I saw was from Pura Vida showcasing their bracelets. The podcasts mentioned a story about a women who was trying to search online for help since she was an alcoholic. The next advertisement she saw was for her local liquor store. This is absolutely disgusting because it reminds her of a habit she is trying to break. Although there are times where I like the personal ads, sometimes it is just creepy.

3. The activity I found most scary while listening to the podcats was "apply magic sauce". This is a website where you can upload information from either Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin, and recieve a prediction about your personality. I uploaded my Facebook information to the website and the scariest part is, the only thing it got wrong was my age. Based on my posts, it predicted I was 38, and based on my comments it said I was 26. For the rest of the data I stuck to reading what it predicted based on only my posts. It said I am 100% feminine, slightly conservative, organized and hardworking, good in teams, and laid back and relaxed. All of this was correct. They were even able to predict my personality type, Extroverted Sensing Feeling Judging (ESFJ). I had gotten this result when taking a personality test for my psychology class 2 years ago. It also said  I had 60% leadership potential, which was something new I learned about myself. From a marketing communications perspective, this form of data collection is great because it can semi-accurately know who I am just based on my Facebook posts. They are then able to advertise products based on my personality and gender. I would not suggest they use the age prediction because that was inaccurate. 

Jordyn Solka

1.) The podcasts I chose to watch included “A Different Kind of Streaking”, “Why We Need No Filter”, “Terms of Service”,  “How to Create Good Digital Citizens”, “Dear (Data) Diary” and “Your Metadata is Showing.” The first one dealt with Snapchat. It didn’t touch too deep on privacy concerns, but it talked about the persuasiveness of apps and how they draw you in to the app. Snapchat is interesting to me because like the book states, Snapchat has had their share of privacy concerns to the point that the Federal Trade Commission is going to monitor their privacy policies for the next 20 years (Andrews, Shimp, 2018 p. 303). The podcasts “Terms of Service” was the most interesting to me. This one dealt more with privacy concerns because it talked about a couple who encountered legal issues when they got sued by a company for leaving an honest review on the internet. While all of these podcasts touched on different topics, I found a common theme between all 6 podcasts. Nothing is private. Terms of Services and privacy policiesare basically you granting the apps access to all of your information. 

2.) Social media advertising is extremely effective. These apps are trying heir hardest to keep your attention and persuade users to continue using. Because they have your attention already, you are highly likely to not ignore the ads. Also, these ads can be tailored based off your cookie information stored on your computer. There’s a reason a majority of your ads are things you are interested in or recently looked up or spoke about. 

3.) One form of data collection that really freaks me out is the location tracking. I get that apps collect your basic information like name, email address, phone number, etc. While location services are freaky to me, location services can be used for geodemographic targeting for ads. Plus, data researchers can use location information to see where people are visiting. There could be hidden trends or tell-tales of certain lifestyles. I wish the book touched on data collection issues more. I think this topic is extremely important and not as familiar with people as it should be. 

References:

Andrews, J., & Shimp, T. (2018). Integrated Marketing Communications (Tenth ed.). Boston,

MA: Cengage Learning.