Mele’s Musings

Yahoo to Make Targeted Ads Optional

A company giving customers control over their data?  What’s next?  Anarchy?!?

Picture: blog.speculist.com

Article excerpt:   Internet giant Yahoo is set to announce today that it will allow users to shut off targeted advertising on its Web sites, a move that comes as a congressional committee continues to air concerns about consumer privacy. Last week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce asked Yahoo and 32 other Internet companies to provide more information about the surfing data they collect from Web users and how the data are used to customize advertising. As many media companies struggle to make money from their Web sites, members of Congress and the industry appear to be in the early stages of a high-stakes negotiation over what kind of advertising ought to be allowed.  While Yahoo’s new policy may make it harder for the company to make money from ads — targeted pitches generally fetch higher prices – company officials said offering more privacy options could attract more users. The rest: washingtonpost.com

Musing:  These are really interesting times for online publishers and advertisers.  I, for one, think that publishers and advertisers should hand over a lot more control to their customers, and fast, when it comes to their data.  If they don’t, Congress may make things really hard and mandate much worse solutions.  Customers should have control over information – anonymous or not.  On a related note, customers should in general have a lot more control over their advertising experience.  As I have said before, we often confuse “personalization” with predictive algorithms.  Personalization is not about trying to divine what customers want or need based on past behavior.  It’s about asking customers what they want, and then giving it to them.