Charter Communications announced they were cancelling plans to monitor their subscribers web surfing habits, data that would in turn be sold to Nebuad, a technology start-up and an emerging player in the burgeoning behavioral targeting industry, for the purposes of serving up highly targeted advertising.
Given all of the attention Charter received for announcing their monitoring plans, it’s clear that the privacy concerns being raised by both legislators and consumer advocates has shut this program down…for now. But you can expect Charter, Nebuad and others to continue to press this issue and emerge with a reformulated message about the ‘consumer benefits’ of behavioral targeting – there is simply too much money at stake and too much pressure on ISPs to generate incremental revenue beyond simply connecting consumers to the Internet.
As I’ve said before, transparency and education is the key for ISPs and start-ups like Nebuad – that, and just plain common sense and ethical business practices. In combination with today’s political climate, recent concerns about monitoring citizen behavior and the growing distrust of corporate America in general, providers and enablers of these kinds of tracking programs – not to mention the brands participating in such targeting programs – will need to demonstrate through communication and action a fierce commitment to protecting consumer privacy, while theoretically, ‘enhancing the consumer experience.’
With respect to the advertising industry at large, I urge us to take the high road, to be smart about the kinds of programs we recommend and execute for our clients. “Rep. Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, said in a written statement. I urge other broadband companies considering similar user profiling programs to similarly hold off on implementation while these important privacy concerns can be addressed.” Reading between the lines, it’s clear that if the advertising industry doesn’t regulate itself and implement guardrails to protect consumer privacy, the government will do it for us…and who wants that?
