Online Advertising

     Without going into too much detail, I must admit that online advertising is what pays my college tuition, in an indirect sort of way. Consequently, my ethical response to online advertising is likely a bit more biased toward acceptance than most other people. At its core, online advertising is the result of companies cleverly making use of the data available to them. On the level, such behavior is in no way ethically reprehensible. The standard methods companies use to gather their data, i.e. page-view tracking, purchase history, social media analysis, etc. are all legitimate (this post will refer to them as reasonably-public) methods because they gather data which the subject knowingly and willingly makes public. Any post on social media should, in my opinion, be fair game for usage by a third party. Additionally, page-views and purchase history are all conscious decisions which the subject generally knows have the potential to be observed by a third party and thus become reasonably-public data. When the subject makes these decisions, it is on her to make her peace with that fact. (I would, however, like to see a beefed-up Incognito Mode become a better option for those who truly cannot fathom the idea of their browsing being observed.)

     The New York Times and The Guardian both chronicle cases of legitimate data collection. Target makes use of customer’s conscious and public decisions to great effect. Facebook collects social media data which is, by definition, public. (Social media? Come on…) Even the cases where lenders and recruiters collect data on their customers, as decried by the Kaspersky blog, is legitimate. In a society in which every company has the obligation to perform well for customers and shareholders alike, all potential competitive advantages which can be legitimately and legally acquired should be considered and used.

     However, when data to be used for advertising is acquired illegally—whether through hacking, intimidation, or bribery—the data itself and the resulting analytics and company actions become ethically disagreeable. Illegally or illegitimately acquired data not only gives the company in question an unfair advantage in the marketplace, but it also puts the customer at a disadvantage. A person whose not-reasonably-public decisions, identity, and preferences are compromised must now work hard to (if possible) restore his or her identity and good reputation. Nor should that person be expected to be the vanguard of their own not-reasonably-public data. That responsibility lies with the companies who can mobilize large IT departments to protect financial secrets, matters of identity, and so forth. Individual people generally do not have the IT expertise or physical ability to fully protect their own not-reasonably-public data, and so that charge shifts to the other, generally more powerful, party.

     With the current (and most logical) precedent of companies each holding and owning the data they collect on their customers, it is incumbent on those companies to protect the data from hacking and leaking for two reasons. First, hacking or leaking of not-reasonably-public data breaches the necessary relationship built on trust between the company and the customer as described in the previous paragraph. Second, it removes the marketplace advantage the company might have had by owning the data. Within this second point lies my justification for why companies should be allowed to sell reasonably-public user data. A key component of the modern marketplace economy is the securitization and distribution of individual bits of data (stocks, bonds, mortgages, etc.) In my opinion, reasonably-public user data is just more data ready to be securitized. Therefore, companies should be allowed to package and sell user-data in a responsible, airtight manner when the purchaser can prove that it will use the data for legitimate ends. Additionally, if the government has a very legitimate need for the data and can provide a warrant or court order, they should be provided with the data (in most cases.) Overall, the major keys when dealing with user information and advertising are legitimate collection of reasonably-public data, mindful protection of that data, and sound market practices when dealing with the data.