Have you ever googled something and shortly after that your browser is filled with advertisements related to that particular search? Have you seen persuasive political messages on your feed before elections? If you are still reading, I assume you have. Most of these ads that we see all over the Internet are the result of a whole behind-the-scenes process of data-driven marketing and political campaigning, using people’s personal data, browsing history and searches to persuade them to buy a certain product or influence their political views, which makes people question the morality of it all.

“Data-driven marketing is the strategy of using customer information for optimal and targeted media buying and creative messaging. It is one of the most transformational changes in digital advertising that has every occurred.” (Lennon, 2017). Even though these relatively new practices are quite controversial, there are some significant benefits that make users’ life easier.

As we know, the Internet is like an ocean filled with information most of which is completely irrelevant to us. If by the same principal the ads that showed up on our browsers were completely randomised, no one would actually be interested in them. However, now that data-driven marketing strategies are being applied, products that are potentially more relevant to our needs and interests could be offered to us.

Yet, some alarming claims have been made regarding manipulative techniques that use our own data against us. Allegedly, social media platforms, in this case Facebook specifically, is able to detect information about people’s emotional state (Levin, 2017). Having information about teenagers that are feeling insecure, worthless and stress, advertisers could easily take advantage of those vulnerabilities to get products to sell.

Therefore, we can conclude, that when marketing strategies are clearly profit-driven, it would be naïve to think that our data is only used in an ethical way.

 

References:

Lennon, R (2017). What Is Data-Driven Marketing? – Definition, Examples and Case Studies [online]. Make Thunder. [Viewed 10 January 2019]. Available from: https://www.makethunder.com/data-driven-marketing-definition-examples/

Levin, S (2017). Facebook told advertisers it can identify teens feeling ‘insecure’ and ‘worthless’ [online]. The Guardian. [Viewed 10 January 2019]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/01/facebook-advertising-data-insecure-teens