Advancements in digital technologies and data collection allow marketers to implement individualized targeting (IT), which presupposes that current or prospective consumers receive personalized advertisements based on their preferences. IT is beneficial: marketers identify target audiences while customers receive relevant recommendations. Nonetheless, the application of this strategy involves personal data use, potentially interfering with consumer privacy. IT should be justified and transparent for increased benefits, while consumers’ information should be consciously provided and protected to avoid data breaches that conceivably harm customers.
Individualized Targeting
IT is a modern and prevalent marketing tool that implies employing consumers’ data to place individually directed advertisements and offerings. Thousands of users share their information on the web, allowing marketers “to gain unprecedented insight into consumers and serve up solutions tailored to their individual needs” (John et al., 2018). IT serves two primary purposes: firms determine their audiences and target promotions directly to prospective customers while consumers receive offers they are more probably interested in. Noteworthy, recent research reveals that people tend to share their data to achieve individualized offers or other benefits (Redman & Waitman, 2020). Otherwise, IT is possible due to surveillance tools, such as website cookies that track browsing history, location, and search requests. Every time users surf the web, they leave traces of their activity. Each click, tap, like, website visit, request, login, post, message, and other actions are captured in one way or another. Not only substantial companies such as Google, Facebook, or Amazon, but the generality of modern websites use cookies, notify users about it, and offer to examine cookies policy.
Aggregated information is analyzed and interpreted, defining users’ preferences, needs, interests, and expectations based on information provided directly or on indirect assumptions. Exactly knowing what customer demands and placing the corresponding advertisement on websites, social media, or mobile applications increase ad performance and consumer experience. For instance, Instagram analyzes users’ likes and subscriptions to place more relevant posts on top, generate catching recommendations, and promote appealing target advertisements. IT within social networks is a practical and functioning tool: users who trust Facebook and see justified individualized ads on this social media express interest “in purchasing the product and engaging with the advertiser” (John et al., 2018). IT provides users with catching offers on the spot, showing potentially attractive products they do not need searching for by themselves.
Consumer Privacy
The vast amounts of users’ records shaping IT evoke doubts about consumer privacy which refers to the protection and confidentiality of personal information provided by customers. Web-users incessantly leave bits of personally identifiable information such as gender, age, location, health conditions, and payment details. Data may be presented on social networks profiles or aggregated with the help of cookies. According to Redman and Waitman (2020), 90% of people caring about privacy consider that “the ways their data is treated reflects how they are treated as customers”. Moreover, they will not purchase from companies unless they know how their information is used (Redman & Waitman, 2020). Legislations try to fill this gap: in Hong Kong, for instance, the data user must explain the purpose and possible receivers of the data collected (Ho & Tham, 2021). Nevertheless, IT frequently relies on the data collected without permission, provided by third parties, or suggestions made by analytical software: such misuse of personal information results in the data leak, which interferes with consumer privacy.
Careless transmission and exploitation of users’ information make data vulnerable to being stolen and abused. Information users disclose on the web “may be copied, sold, replicated, distributed, and eventually coalesced into profiles and even complete dossiers” (Whitman & Mattord, 2018, p. 16). Negative consequences of a data breach include reputational damage and financial loss. Targeting ads of a sensitive nature may reveal information that consumer does not want to disclose. For instance, Target retailer personalized promotion exposed teenage girl pregnancy to her father: privacy violation outraged many retailer consumers (John et al., 2018). Information value and frivolous exploitation highlight the necessity of enhancing strategies and privacy policies.
Opinion
Although users’ privacy may be violated, IT appears to be a beneficial marketing strategy that requires improvements and more distinct policy regulations. Aggregated personal data should be secured and applied as intended. Websites generally contain privacy policy pages describing the collection and exploitation of users’ data and its protection methods. Regardless, people claim that the sustainable issue is unawareness of how and what for their information is used since privacy policies are overly formal thus vague (Redman & Waitman, 2020). Consumers should receive transparent and justified disclosures of how their data is used and why they receive particular ads.
Another strategy is giving consumers control over the use of their data: allowing users to manage cookies and personal information, providing options for collected data exploitation. A conclusive suggestion for safeguarding information is to “transfer data created and controlled by private entitles to public institutions” (Sadowskj et al., 2021, p. 171). The confidence that information is stored and secured by government agencies instead of unauthorized usage by various companies can create the necessary trust between consumers and firms.
References
Ho, S. M., & Tham, Y. M. (2021). Hong Kong – data protection overview. OneTrust DataGuidance. Web.
John, L. K., Kim, T., & Barasz, K. (2018). Ads that don’t overstep. Harvard Business Review, 96(1), 62-69. Web.
Redman, T. C., & Waitman, R. M. (2020). Do you care about privacy as much as your customers do? Harvard Business Review, 98(2). Web.
Sadowski, J., Viljoen, S., & Whittaker, M. (2021). Everyone should decide how their digital data are used – not just tech companies. Nature, 595, 169-171. Web.
Whitman, M. E., & Mattord, H. J. (2018). Principles of information security (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.