Week Seven: Gladverts...Invasion of Privacy?

          Digital has made an advertiser's job a whole lot easier. It is no longer a case of the widely known saying "everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" but in fact, as Banksy suggests "In the future everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes". With rapidly developing technology and advances of the digital presence in all industries, it has led to a wide debate of privacy issues, with consumers feeling their person privacy is being violated further and further. With no regulation/legislation currently in place to effectively deal with the digital communications environment, activists are springing up everywhere campaigning for their rights to privacy. Not only is there the personal invasion, but also the dangers that exist such as phishing, online/physical stalking, identity theft and the list continues. Research conducted in the US found email Phishing attacks 4 times more likely to be successful when send using personal information gathered from social networking profiles.

        

Privacy can be defined as “the claim of an individual to determine what information about himself or herself should be known to others….This, also, involves when such information will be obtained and what uses will be made of it by others” (Alan Westin, 2003)”.

         And it looks like digital privacy activists are going to have something new to protest against. According to a BBC report released last month, 'Minority Report' like ads will be soon appearing in the UK (See article here). A DIGITAL ADVERTISING REVOLUTION has been forecast for the near future, the technology being called 'Gladvertising'. The first step to this is going to be adverts that reflect our moods. The technology uses emotion recognition software (ERS) and provide an advert based on how you feel. It is the intention of advertisers to further the technology so that it can read age, gender and even interests, possibly using social network profiling or from existing market research. Privacy campaigners are already kicking up a fuss about this 'scary' technology and it has developed due the industry so far existing unchallenged. 

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We have a situation where the boundaries between our online and offline worlds become even more blurred and we currently have no regulatory or legislative regime in place to deal with these dangers.”

Alexander HanffPrivacy International

       Dr Shaw, of Future Studies, has said there will naturally be research into 'gladvertising' to consider the publics concerns and anxieties but believes the public will become increasingly comfortable with the new technology. I am torn between my views as a consumer and as an advertiser. As an advertiser this creates hugely exciting new opportunities and ways to target potential customers....from the view of a consumer I can understand the privacy issues involved. I guess the only thing to do is wait and see what the new technology in the digital age has in store for us...