American Rep. Rick Boucher, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, is hoping to introduce an internet marketing and privacy bill that will include laws and regulations to clarify what information web sites collect, how long they keep it for, and what they do with it.  In the bill will also be “opt-out” clauses for users that would prefer not to have marketing companies combing through their every online activity. Web sites that share user information with outside advertising networks, which place ads on sites all over the Internet, would be required to obtain user approval before collecting that data and web sites that deal with sensitive personal information, such as medical and financial data, sexual orientation, Social Security numbers and other ID numbers, would be expected to follow the same trend of permissive marketing.

It will likely be difficult to enforce what this bill is asking for, but I commend him for the effort. Invasive internet marketing takes all the fun out of the art. Boucher claims that this bill will not threaten the underlying economic foundations of the internet which is largely from ad based revenue and that it will in fact be good for consumers.  Invasive marketing has been an issue among Sociologists, legal experts and consumer advocate groups who have warned for years that it can create numerous negative externalities. Some people can become enraged, or at the very least preturbed that their dinner was inturrupted by a telemarketer, or their e-mail is suddenly filled with spam, or that a canvasser on the street is trying to hand them something. And then they take it out on innocent bystanders, kids, parents, bartenders and servers etc. These traditional forms presents a far more innocent side of invasive marketing- though nontheless intrusive and annoying. Boucher’s bill is aimed at something far more subversive and worrisome to many, even though it doesn’t foul your mood leading to a negative pay it forward sort of effect. How much information about any of us at any given time, being bought and sold, gathered and stored would shock most people. And unlike when we recieve a phone call or have a coke zero shoved in our faces on the street, marketing online largely goes on out of site and mind.  we don’t know when a company has bought or sold our information, Boucher’s bill also wants us to be able to track that. An easy way to circumnavigate this legal and ethical swamp is for consumers and companies alike to take advantage of developments in interest-based advertising. Introduced earlier this year by Google, AdSense is a way to link producers and consumers effectively by only advertising things relative to consumer’s web habits. The difference is that it is up-front and users are made known that only those companies offering goods or services that are directly related to their surfing habits will be given access to their browser.

I believe Interest-based marketing and advertising will grow and eventually become increasingly effective- hopefully eliminating intrusive marketing altogether. If TV survives, I’ve maintained for years that I believe it should allow users (viewers) to pre-select what advertising they would like for any given amount of time- to maximize marketing and advertising hitting the mark and for benefit of the consumer; regardless of what shows they watch.

Advertising doesn’t need to be shooting in the dark (which despite the best efforts to pair ads with shows it still is when compared to direct interests-based marketing)  because demographics across the spectrum watch all the same shows and many shows you wouldn’t expect. For example, here’s my big secret- I really like the show Anna and Kristina’s Grocery Bags (I loved their previous show The Shopping Bags even more) it’s a show on the Women’s Network and I enjoy it for several reasons (coming from a marketing background and being someone who likes honest reviews of products) I’m also completely stoked for my beloved Seattle Seahawks season to start, but I hate crappy american beer and I don’t eat steak. So any time I watch either a game or Anna and Kristina I have to patiently wait for dozens of commercials that miss my particular demographic to end- everyone does. I want the option of choosing what kinds of products and ads are between my programs- I LOVE the idea of interest-based advertising. For now it’s web only, I hope TV will start to seriously rethink marketing and advertising, it has to in order to compete with all established and emerging forms of online content.

 The breakdown on the google site is like this:

Meet Mary

Mary’s favorite hobby is gardening. With Google’s interest-based advertising technology, Mary will see more relevant gardening ads because she visits many gardening websites. Here’s how that works:

 When Mary visits websites that display ads provided by Google’s AdSense program, Google stores a number in her browser (using a “cookie“) to remember her visits. That number could look like this: 114411.

Because many of the websites that Mary visits are related to gardening, Google puts her number (114411) in the “gardening enthusiast” interest category

As a result, Google will show more gardening ads to Mary (based on her browser) as she browses websites that use AdSense.

No personal information

Throughout this process, Google does not know Mary’s name or any other personal information about her. Google simply recognizes the number stored in Mary’s browser, sees that it falls into the gardening enthusiast interest category and shows more gardening ads. Google will also not use sensitive interest categories, such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation, health, or sensitive financial categories

Bring it.

It’s not every day that you hear a major telecommunications corp buckled under customer pressure to reverse a charge or a bill, or is it? Ask Adam Savage of the TV show Myth Busters. You know, the one where they smash stuff and put things in their mouths and race things. I’ve never watched a full episode I must admit (I like my myths just the way they are) but he’ll likely attest to the continuing and growing dominance of social media as a force for consumer advocacy.

Savage received an $11,000 bill for a few hours of web surfing time while in Canada on business. No pics downloaded, no PHd thesis e-mailed, no uncut extended LOTR trilogy streaming . Just a few hours of basic e-mail correspondence and surfing over 5 days. So rather than call AT&T and ask for a polite and detailed explanation as to why they were trying to wring him like a wet dishrag for his hard earned cash, he turned to twitter. Within a few hours his 50,000 followers had created an internet stir that was surpassed only by Michael Jackson’s untimely death. Under the pressure of this negative publicity AT&T reversed his outrageous charges.

This incident represents that valuable consumer advocacy force of social media applications that has been hailed as paramount in its very existence by some, but to many users seems more an afterthought if not a non issue. And it’s not just service providers, even social media companies themselves are feeling the heat. The customer is boss.

In February Facebook retracted a new user information policy from pressure it received from tens of thousands of users, unimpressed by the proposed changes.

As we continue to explore and experience the groundswell can we expect companies to adopt better, less burglar-centric practices? Has the balance of power truly begun to shift between these two sides? One thing is for sure, the revolution will be tweeted. Seller beware…