The ways data are collected, the forms of data collected, the mediums and platforms which they’re collected through and how they’re collected and used, and who and why they are used have all been growing exponentially. Research from a study done by IAB Data Center of Excellence shows that in 2018, American companies spent nearly $19.2 billion on third-party audience data for advertising and marketing efforts (IAB Data Center of Excellence, 2018). Part two of the two part blog post will provide readers with a necessary insight into who is actually interested in the data being collected, how they’re using the data, and why we should care.
In the previous post we discussed the forms of data being collected such as cookies, where they’re collected and how they’re collected by the websites and applications we interact with. We understood that the who in this process as the first party cookies tracked and collected by the owners of the digital interfaces we interact with. Another important who is the people who collect our third party data and store them into detailed profiles by groups called data brokers (Rostow, 2017). In addition to our digital activity, it also could contain information like the physical location of our device, and other characteristics about our unique identity, characteristics and personality traits. This data then places us in segments by the data brokers, and then commoditized and sold to companies and advertisers who want to target these segments. This is sometimes referred to as online behaviour based advertising is a form of targeted advertising that is done by tracking a user’s internet activity as they browse the web and building profiles of them as more data is collected to create a more accurate profiles that are then provided to advertisers that pay to reach users whose data highlights them as part of the target market they want to reach (Jaroszek, 2014). Why is it important that we understand this? As we are a crucial part of the process of our own commercialization, and though some of the information is provided deliberately (agreeing to terms of use), more and more information is being provided unwillingly. Andrew McStay in his book “The Mood of Information”, he highlights this process as a commercial solicitation predicated on the commodification of experience and subjectivity (McStay, 2011).
Apple CEO Tim Cook has actually argued for the Federal Trade Commission to establish a data broker clearinghouse that requires all data brokers to register, so that consumers could track the transactions that have collected and sold their data, with the freedom and power to delete their demand with ease (Tim Cook, 2019).
Sources
Jaroszek, A. (2014). Online behavioural advertising and the protection of Children’s personal data on the internet. Wroclaw Review of Law, Administration & Economics, 4(2), 56-69. doi:10.1515/wrlae-2015-0015
Rostow, T. (2017). What happens when an acquaintance buys your data? A new privacy harm in the age of data brokers. Yale Journal on Regulation, 34(2), 667.
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