What are the social implications of behavioral targeting?
Turow: Most people talk about harm. Often they talk about finding out about prescription drugs that could affect medical insurance. I think it’s important to be concerned about issues of harm and issues of invasion of privacy, but we underestimate the importance of social discrimination and behavioral targeting. Not just behavioral, but those related, such as physiographic, demographic and implied social relations based on activities on social sites. We’re creating a situation where people will not only receive advertisements and discounts, but also news and entertainment. Advertisements we see are information based on ideas about us that we may not realize exist. I’m not objecting to target marketing. That horse has left the barn. I’m concerned about consumers not being able to monitor or have control of the information companies have about them. Or, not knowing what to do about it once they discover the companies have the information. MediaPost: How can companies make consumer more a
