{"id":57,"date":"2017-05-25T18:56:07","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T18:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/comm601\/chapter\/online-behavioral-targeting-obt\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T21:43:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T21:43:52","slug":"online-behavioral-targeting-obt","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/chapter\/online-behavioral-targeting-obt\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 4 \u2013 The Ethical Challenges of Online Behavioral Targeting (OBT)","rendered":"Chapter 4 \u2013 The Ethical Challenges of Online Behavioral Targeting (OBT)"},"content":{"raw":"<strong>Below:<\/strong> Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, predicts how AI will be used to hyper-personalize OBT:\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\"The one opportunity that we just usually talk about...\u00a0is just the ability to make it so that advertisers are increasingly just going to be able to give us a business objective... and have the AI system basically figure out everything else that\u2019s necessary, including generating video or different types of creative that might resonate with different people that are personalized in different ways, finding who the right customers are. All of the capabilities that we\u2019re building, I think, go towards improving all of these different things. So I\u2019m quite optimistic about that.\" - <em>Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) Third Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call, October 29th, 2025<\/em>\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n<img src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/OBT-AI.jpg\" alt=\"Multiple examples of the same ad changed for different audiences\" width=\"1000\" height=\"250\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-282\" \/><strong>Below:<\/strong> An example of the ways in which Online Behavioral Targeting (OBT) affects the character of content that appears in a user's app feed. What does the IRCTC official's response to the user suggest about the user's browsing habits?\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img class=\" wp-image-52 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2017\/05\/Indian-Rail-service.jpeg\" alt=\"indian rail service\" width=\"383\" height=\"561\" \/><\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Overview<\/h2>\r\nIn the prior chapter, we explored the benefits and risks associated with a personalized Internet experience from the user's perspective. In this chapter, we turn the tables and look at OBT from the ethical perspective of the business owners who use them.\r\n\r\nThis week's discussion will place you in a position of a business owner whose success depends on remaining competitive. The focus is on a marketing strategy that will enable the business to place their ads in front of users according to a set of ethical principals. In this week's discussion, you will have the decision-making power to employ an algorithm that predicts the characteristics and behaviors of your customers so that you can gain a competitive advantage. How far would you go, given the opportunity to <em>calculate<\/em> some very intimate details about them?\r\n\r\nBelow is a simple clickable diagram that illustrates how metadata is used in generating marketing leads for predictive algorithms.\r\n\r\n[h5p id=\"1\"]\r\n<h2>Key Terms<\/h2>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/General_Data_Protection_Regulation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/EPrivacy_Regulation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ePrivacy Directive (ePR)<\/a>: These are two regulatory statutes that describe compliance requirements for data privacy for all websites or systems that are accessible in the UK and EU, respectively. Both regulations pertain to, among other things, the permissible collection and use of cookie data. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cookiebot.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cookiebot<\/a> is a service that helps websites to operate in compliance of these regulations. Below is an example of the user-facing interface for managing the use of cookies on a website that uses the Cookiebot tools.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_620\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"456\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cookiebot.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img class=\"wp-image-53\" style=\"border: 1px #000 solid\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2023\/02\/Cookiebot.png\" alt=\"cookiebot panel\" width=\"456\" height=\"270\" \/><\/a> Click the image to go to a live website that has this panel. When the page loads, click the \"Show Details\" button on the lower right to explore the various ways cookies are used and for which purposes.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<strong>Mobile Advertising ID (MAID)<\/strong>: Every mobile device (smartphone or tablet) contains a unique identifier that is used by advertising services to target a specific device. When the apps on your phone capture your metadata, it associates it with your MAID. <a href=\"https:\/\/revealmobile.com\/how-to-find-your-mobile-ad-id\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to Find the Mobile Ad ID on Apple and Android Devices<\/a>. The MAID can be used for unethical purposes, as described in the latter articles below.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Open-source_intelligence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Open-source intelligence (OSINT)<\/strong><\/a>: (Excerpted from the Wikipedia entry). Huge collections of data about individuals can be obtained through open-source resources provided the information does not require any type of clandestine collection techniques to obtain it and that it must be obtained through means that entirely meet the copyright and commercial requirements of the vendors were applicable. These open sources include:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Media: print newspapers, magazines, radio, and television from across and between countries.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Internet, online publications, blogs, discussion groups, citizen media (i.e. \u2013 cell phone videos, and user created content), YouTube, and other social media websites (i.e. \u2013 Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). This source also outpaces a variety of other sources due to its timeliness and ease of access.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Public Government Data, public government reports, budgets, hearings, telephone directories, press conferences, websites, and speeches. Although this source comes from an official source they are publicly accessible and may be used openly and freely.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Professional and Academic Publications, information acquired from journals, conferences, symposia, academic papers, dissertations, and theses.\r\nCommercial Data, commercial imagery, financial and industrial assessments, and databases.\r\nGrey literature,\u00a0technical reports, preprints, patents, working papers, business documents, unpublished works, and newsletters.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nAn example of an app that draws from OSINT data is the <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/predictim-claims-its-ai-can-flag-risky-babysitters-so-1830913997\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Predictim app<\/a> whose service evaluates whether the babysitter you intended to hire poses any risks. (See the optional article resource below from CBS News).\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<h2>What should you be focusing on?<\/h2>\r\nYour objective in this module is:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Develop a strategic position on the use of OBT <i>from a business person's perspective<\/i> which takes into account its ethical ramifications.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left\">Readings &amp; Media<\/h2>\r\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\r\n<h3><em>Thematic narrative in this chapter<\/em><\/h3>\r\nIn the following readings and media, the authors will present the following themes:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li>Metadata and tracking systems are constantly improving.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Even though metadata systems do not collect or report PII, there are ethical issues to consider when businesses use recommender systems that are surprisingly accurate.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0Required\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong> Interaction: What information is being tracked while you interact online? (15:00)<\/h3>\r\nSpend a few minutes clicking around <a href=\"https:\/\/clickclickclick.click\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ClickClickClick.click<\/a> to see just how much metadata can be collected about your Web browser behavior as you navigate online. This will give you a sense of how sophisticated Web browser tracking technology has become. In addition, consider that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/08\/13\/business\/behavioral-biometrics-banks-security.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">manner of your interaction<\/a> can be tracked to identify patterns of your engagement that are as unique as your fingerprint or manner of walking.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/clickclickclick.click\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-54 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2023\/02\/ClickClick.jpg\" alt=\"click click click\" width=\"611\" height=\"281\" \/><\/a>\r\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong> Interaction: What is the fingerprint of your browser? (15:00)<\/h3>\r\nGo to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's dedicated webpage for checking your browser's fingerprint. After checking your browser, skim through their page, \"<a href=\"https:\/\/coveryourtracks.eff.org\/learn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How Do trackers Work?<\/a>\"\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-55\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2023\/02\/VideoLink-tracking.jpg\" alt=\"check your browser\" width=\"611\" height=\"281\" \/><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Video:<\/strong> \"Why is your phone SECRETLY connecting to these sites to TRACK you?\" by Liron Segev via YouTube (15:37).<\/h3>\r\nThis video publisher produces investigative content related to computer systems, hacking, privacy, and many other popular issues related to common user experiences. The style of his presentation is intended for entertainment purposes, so it is not presented in a scholarly manner. However, his live demonstrations are revealing and informative.\r\n\r\nIn this video, Liron Segev installs Pi-Hole, a diagnostic app that tracks all of the Internet locations that his phone connects to and investigates the ones that appear to be sharing data.\r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/youtu.be\/sWY2pqUXdts?si=fYxzi9fcN93u3rnU[\/embed]\r\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Article:<\/strong> \"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c1en1yjv4dpo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook to stop targeting ads at UK woman after legal fight<\/a>\" Published March 22, 2025 by the BBC. (2 pages)<\/h3>\r\nThis article describes the legal argument of employing OBT through metadata capture versus the business's right not to give away their services for free.<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\"><\/span>\r\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Database:<\/strong> \"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/news\/press-releases\/2022\/08\/ftc-sues-kochava-selling-data-tracks-people-reproductive-health-clinics-places-worship-other\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FTC Sues Kochava for Selling Data that Tracks People at Reproductive Health Clinics, Places of Worship, and Other Sensitive Locations<\/a>\" Published August 29, 2022 by the Federal Trade Commission. (3 pages)<\/h3>\r\nThis article details the case against Kochava Inc., a data broker service, for selling metadata that can \"...reveal people\u2019s visits to reproductive health clinics, places of worship, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and addiction recovery facilities.\" <strong>This statement is a bit misleading.<\/strong> As you will see when you read the entire article, the data referred to here comes from mobile devices - not from actual people.\r\n\r\nHowever, it is possible (at great expense) to employ a service that will convert the Mobile Advertising ID (MAID) of a smartphone or tablet to a known person: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/industry-unmasks-at-scale-maid-to-pii\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Inside the Industry That Unmasks People at Scale<\/a>. There is another tool, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2023\/nov\/06\/home-affairs-locate-x-paying-mobile-phone-tracking-tool\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Locate X<\/a>, that (also at great expense) can track the movements of people based on their smartphone or tablet location and display their journey on a map: <span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\"><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/email\/a400f89b-10e8-4910-9ee3-ac83b70020aa\/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\" rel=\"noopener\">Inside the U.S. Government-Bought Tool That Can Track Phones at Abortion Clinics<\/a><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">. There are ramifications for this capability, such as a state government's law enforcement agency using these tools to prosecute a woman (and whoever is transporting her) who crosses state lines to obtain an abortion when it is illegal her home state - all without a warrant. In the wrong hands, Locate X can track people attending certain houses of worship, jurors, judges, prosecutors, and teachers.<\/span>\r\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">Federal Trade Commission. (2022). <em>FTC Sues Kochava for Selling Data that Tracks People at Reproductive Health Clinics, Places of Worship, and Other Sensitive Locations<\/em>. Press Release.<\/div>\r\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Article:<\/strong> The ethical codes of using OBT (17 pages)<\/h3>\r\nReview \"The Ethics of <a href=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2023\/02\/OnlineBehavioralTargetingJCIRAFinal.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Legal and Ethical Challenges of Online Behavioral Targeting in Advertising<\/a>\". <span style=\"background-color: #d1d1d1\">You only need to review the parts about the ethical codes related to OBT<\/span>. You are free to skim the other parts related to all of the methods of data collection if it would help you with your project. <strong>The main focus of this piece begins on page 18 within the PDF under the heading \"Ethical Analysis of Online Behavioral Targeting and the FTC Principles and Guidelines\"<\/strong>\r\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">Alexander Nill &amp; Robert J. Aalberts (2014) Legal and Ethical Challenges of Online Behavioral Targeting in Advertising, <i>Journal of Current Issues &amp; Research in Advertising<\/i>, 35:2, 126-146, DOI: 10.1080\/10641734.2014.899529<\/div>\r\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong> Article: The case for banning OBT (5 pages)<\/h3>\r\nReview\u00a0<em>The New Republic<\/em> - \"<a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/147887\/ban-targeted-advertising-facebook-google\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ban Targeted Advertising<\/a>.\" David Dayan makes the case for banning targeted advertising altogether. He suggests that not only does the \"surveillance economy\" fail to deliver anything meaningful to advertisers but he believes building massive databases of metadata creates an attractive target for hackers. The risks outweigh the perceived benefits.\r\n\r\nDayan argues from both a business perspective and from an ethical perspective. As you read, consider whether Dayan's commentary is a strong argument for banning OBT, or whether his argument would be weaker if the OBT system had a few tweaks.\r\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">David, D. (2018). Ban Targeted Advertising.\u00a0<i>The New Republic<\/i>. Retrieved from https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/147887\/ban-targeted-advertising-facebook-google<\/div>\r\n\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left\">Optional: Supplemental resources related to OBT and publicly obtained data<\/h2>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/marketoonist.com\/2021\/07\/zeropartydata.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marketoonist - The personalization privacy paradox<\/a>: This brief article describes and illustrates \"Zero party data,\" a category of user data that is intended to be different than the third-party metadata described above in OBT. If you are furthering your studies in Marketing, this might be a trend to follow.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/privacybadger.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Privacy Badger<\/a> is a browser extension that blocks trackers. Review what it claims to remediate.\r\n\r\n<strong>The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Center for Financial Research<\/strong> describes how metadata from one's digital footprint is being used as a basis of determining credit worthiness. \"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fdic.gov\/bank\/analytical\/cfr\/2018\/wp2018\/cfr-wp2018-04.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">On the Rise of the FinTechs\u2014Credit Scoring Using Digital Footprints<\/a>\" includes the following statements:\r\n<blockquote>The growth of the internet leaves a trace of simple, easily accessible information about almost every individual worldwide \u2013 a trace that we label \u201cdigital footprint\u201d. Even without writing text about oneself, uploading financial information, or providing friendship or social network data, the simple act of accessing or registering on a webpage leaves valuable information. As a simple example, every website can effortlessly track whether a customer is using an iOS or an Android device; or track whether a customer comes to the website via a search engine or a click on a paid ad. In this project, we seek to understand whether the digital footprint helps augment information traditionally considered to be important for default prediction and whether it can be used for the prediction of consumer payment behavior and defaults.\r\n\r\n...Using more than 250,000 observations, we show that even simple, easily accessible variables from the digital footprint equal or exceed the information content of credit bureau scores. Furthermore, the discriminatory power for unscorable customers is very similar to that of scorable customers. Our results have potentially wide implications for financial intermediaries\u2019 business models, for access to credit for the unbanked, and for the behavior of consumers, firms, and regulators in the digital sphere.<\/blockquote>\r\n<strong>BBC News<\/strong>: \"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-46543324\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bereaved mother criticises Facebook over baby ads<\/a>.\" This article describes how a woman who suffered the loss of a stillborn birth continued to receive targeted ads for baby products and related content no matter how often she objected to the ad placements through Facebook's feedback mechanisms. This article will give you a sense of how, despite the incredible capabilities of OBT, it is not \"intelligent\" enough to know when circumstances in a person's life have changed.\r\n\r\n<strong>CBS News:<\/strong>\u00a0\"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/ai-babysitting-service-predictim-blocked-by-facebook-and-twitter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AI babysitting service Predictim vows to stay online after being blocked by Facebook and Twitter<\/a>.\" Find out why\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.predictim.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Predictim<\/a>, an app designed to evaluate the risk of the babysitter you intended to hire (which sounds like a good idea), turned into a problem so unmanageable that the service was suspended. This is relevant in this chapter because it is predicated on the ability of the system to \"scrape\" social media content about an applicant.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldprivacyforum.org\/about-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The World Privacy Forum<\/a> is a research organization on the forefront of examining privacy issues in the digital era.","rendered":"<p><strong>Below:<\/strong> Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, predicts how AI will be used to hyper-personalize OBT:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">&#8220;The one opportunity that we just usually talk about&#8230;\u00a0is just the ability to make it so that advertisers are increasingly just going to be able to give us a business objective&#8230; and have the AI system basically figure out everything else that\u2019s necessary, including generating video or different types of creative that might resonate with different people that are personalized in different ways, finding who the right customers are. All of the capabilities that we\u2019re building, I think, go towards improving all of these different things. So I\u2019m quite optimistic about that.&#8221; &#8211; <em>Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) Third Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call, October 29th, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/OBT-AI.jpg\" alt=\"Multiple examples of the same ad changed for different audiences\" width=\"1000\" height=\"250\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/OBT-AI.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/OBT-AI-300x75.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/OBT-AI-768x192.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/OBT-AI-65x16.jpg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/OBT-AI-225x56.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/OBT-AI-350x88.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><strong>Below:<\/strong> An example of the ways in which Online Behavioral Targeting (OBT) affects the character of content that appears in a user&#8217;s app feed. What does the IRCTC official&#8217;s response to the user suggest about the user&#8217;s browsing habits?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-52 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2017\/05\/Indian-Rail-service.jpeg\" alt=\"indian rail service\" width=\"383\" height=\"561\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/Indian-Rail-service.jpeg 650w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/Indian-Rail-service-205x300.jpeg 205w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/Indian-Rail-service-65x95.jpeg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/Indian-Rail-service-225x330.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2017\/05\/Indian-Rail-service-350x513.jpeg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 383px) 100vw, 383px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Overview<\/h2>\n<p>In the prior chapter, we explored the benefits and risks associated with a personalized Internet experience from the user&#8217;s perspective. In this chapter, we turn the tables and look at OBT from the ethical perspective of the business owners who use them.<\/p>\n<p>This week&#8217;s discussion will place you in a position of a business owner whose success depends on remaining competitive. The focus is on a marketing strategy that will enable the business to place their ads in front of users according to a set of ethical principals. In this week&#8217;s discussion, you will have the decision-making power to employ an algorithm that predicts the characteristics and behaviors of your customers so that you can gain a competitive advantage. How far would you go, given the opportunity to <em>calculate<\/em> some very intimate details about them?<\/p>\n<p>Below is a simple clickable diagram that illustrates how metadata is used in generating marketing leads for predictive algorithms.<\/p>\n<div id=\"h5p-1\">\n<div class=\"h5p-iframe-wrapper\"><iframe id=\"h5p-iframe-1\" class=\"h5p-iframe\" data-content-id=\"1\" style=\"height:1px\" src=\"about:blank\" frameBorder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" title=\"The Metadata Cycle\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Key Terms<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/General_Data_Protection_Regulation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/EPrivacy_Regulation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ePrivacy Directive (ePR)<\/a>: These are two regulatory statutes that describe compliance requirements for data privacy for all websites or systems that are accessible in the UK and EU, respectively. Both regulations pertain to, among other things, the permissible collection and use of cookie data. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cookiebot.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cookiebot<\/a> is a service that helps websites to operate in compliance of these regulations. Below is an example of the user-facing interface for managing the use of cookies on a website that uses the Cookiebot tools.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_620\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-620\" style=\"width: 456px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cookiebot.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-53\" style=\"border: 1px #000 solid\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2023\/02\/Cookiebot.png\" alt=\"cookiebot panel\" width=\"456\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/Cookiebot.png 664w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/Cookiebot-300x178.png 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/Cookiebot-65x38.png 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/Cookiebot-225x133.png 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/Cookiebot-350x207.png 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 456px) 100vw, 456px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-620\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click the image to go to a live website that has this panel. When the page loads, click the &#8220;Show Details&#8221; button on the lower right to explore the various ways cookies are used and for which purposes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Mobile Advertising ID (MAID)<\/strong>: Every mobile device (smartphone or tablet) contains a unique identifier that is used by advertising services to target a specific device. When the apps on your phone capture your metadata, it associates it with your MAID. <a href=\"https:\/\/revealmobile.com\/how-to-find-your-mobile-ad-id\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to Find the Mobile Ad ID on Apple and Android Devices<\/a>. The MAID can be used for unethical purposes, as described in the latter articles below.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Open-source_intelligence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Open-source intelligence (OSINT)<\/strong><\/a>: (Excerpted from the Wikipedia entry). Huge collections of data about individuals can be obtained through open-source resources provided the information does not require any type of clandestine collection techniques to obtain it and that it must be obtained through means that entirely meet the copyright and commercial requirements of the vendors were applicable. These open sources include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Media: print newspapers, magazines, radio, and television from across and between countries.<\/li>\n<li>Internet, online publications, blogs, discussion groups, citizen media (i.e. \u2013 cell phone videos, and user created content), YouTube, and other social media websites (i.e. \u2013 Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). This source also outpaces a variety of other sources due to its timeliness and ease of access.<\/li>\n<li>Public Government Data, public government reports, budgets, hearings, telephone directories, press conferences, websites, and speeches. Although this source comes from an official source they are publicly accessible and may be used openly and freely.<\/li>\n<li>Professional and Academic Publications, information acquired from journals, conferences, symposia, academic papers, dissertations, and theses.<br \/>\nCommercial Data, commercial imagery, financial and industrial assessments, and databases.<br \/>\nGrey literature,\u00a0technical reports, preprints, patents, working papers, business documents, unpublished works, and newsletters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An example of an app that draws from OSINT data is the <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/predictim-claims-its-ai-can-flag-risky-babysitters-so-1830913997\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Predictim app<\/a> whose service evaluates whether the babysitter you intended to hire poses any risks. (See the optional article resource below from CBS News).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>What should you be focusing on?<\/h2>\n<p>Your objective in this module is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Develop a strategic position on the use of OBT <i>from a business person&#8217;s perspective<\/i> which takes into account its ethical ramifications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left\">Readings &amp; Media<\/h2>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3><em>Thematic narrative in this chapter<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>In the following readings and media, the authors will present the following themes:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Metadata and tracking systems are constantly improving.<\/li>\n<li>Even though metadata systems do not collect or report PII, there are ethical issues to consider when businesses use recommender systems that are surprisingly accurate.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0Required\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong> Interaction: What information is being tracked while you interact online? (15:00)<\/h3>\n<p>Spend a few minutes clicking around <a href=\"https:\/\/clickclickclick.click\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ClickClickClick.click<\/a> to see just how much metadata can be collected about your Web browser behavior as you navigate online. This will give you a sense of how sophisticated Web browser tracking technology has become. In addition, consider that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/08\/13\/business\/behavioral-biometrics-banks-security.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">manner of your interaction<\/a> can be tracked to identify patterns of your engagement that are as unique as your fingerprint or manner of walking.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clickclickclick.click\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-54 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2023\/02\/ClickClick.jpg\" alt=\"click click click\" width=\"611\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/ClickClick.jpg 611w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/ClickClick-300x138.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/ClickClick-65x30.jpg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/ClickClick-225x103.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/ClickClick-350x161.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 611px) 100vw, 611px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong> Interaction: What is the fingerprint of your browser? (15:00)<\/h3>\n<p>Go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation&#8217;s dedicated webpage for checking your browser&#8217;s fingerprint. After checking your browser, skim through their page, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/coveryourtracks.eff.org\/learn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How Do trackers Work?<\/a>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-55\" src=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2023\/02\/VideoLink-tracking.jpg\" alt=\"check your browser\" width=\"611\" height=\"281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/VideoLink-tracking.jpg 611w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/VideoLink-tracking-300x138.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/VideoLink-tracking-65x30.jpg 65w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/VideoLink-tracking-225x103.jpg 225w, https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/files\/2023\/02\/VideoLink-tracking-350x161.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 611px) 100vw, 611px\" \/><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Video:<\/strong> &#8220;Why is your phone SECRETLY connecting to these sites to TRACK you?&#8221; by Liron Segev via YouTube (15:37).<\/h3>\n<p>This video publisher produces investigative content related to computer systems, hacking, privacy, and many other popular issues related to common user experiences. The style of his presentation is intended for entertainment purposes, so it is not presented in a scholarly manner. However, his live demonstrations are revealing and informative.<\/p>\n<p>In this video, Liron Segev installs Pi-Hole, a diagnostic app that tracks all of the Internet locations that his phone connects to and investigates the ones that appear to be sharing data.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-1\" title=\"Why is your phone SECRETLY connecting to these sites to TRACK you?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sWY2pqUXdts?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Article:<\/strong> &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c1en1yjv4dpo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook to stop targeting ads at UK woman after legal fight<\/a>&#8221; Published March 22, 2025 by the BBC. (2 pages)<\/h3>\n<p>This article describes the legal argument of employing OBT through metadata capture versus the business&#8217;s right not to give away their services for free.<span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Database:<\/strong> &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/news-events\/news\/press-releases\/2022\/08\/ftc-sues-kochava-selling-data-tracks-people-reproductive-health-clinics-places-worship-other\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FTC Sues Kochava for Selling Data that Tracks People at Reproductive Health Clinics, Places of Worship, and Other Sensitive Locations<\/a>&#8221; Published August 29, 2022 by the Federal Trade Commission. (3 pages)<\/h3>\n<p>This article details the case against Kochava Inc., a data broker service, for selling metadata that can &#8220;&#8230;reveal people\u2019s visits to reproductive health clinics, places of worship, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and addiction recovery facilities.&#8221; <strong>This statement is a bit misleading.<\/strong> As you will see when you read the entire article, the data referred to here comes from mobile devices &#8211; not from actual people.<\/p>\n<p>However, it is possible (at great expense) to employ a service that will convert the Mobile Advertising ID (MAID) of a smartphone or tablet to a known person: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/industry-unmasks-at-scale-maid-to-pii\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Inside the Industry That Unmasks People at Scale<\/a>. There is another tool, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2023\/nov\/06\/home-affairs-locate-x-paying-mobile-phone-tracking-tool\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Locate X<\/a>, that (also at great expense) can track the movements of people based on their smartphone or tablet location and display their journey on a map: <span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\"><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/email\/a400f89b-10e8-4910-9ee3-ac83b70020aa\/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\" rel=\"noopener\">Inside the U.S. Government-Bought Tool That Can Track Phones at Abortion Clinics<\/a><span style=\"text-align: initial;font-size: 1em\">. There are ramifications for this capability, such as a state government&#8217;s law enforcement agency using these tools to prosecute a woman (and whoever is transporting her) who crosses state lines to obtain an abortion when it is illegal her home state &#8211; all without a warrant. In the wrong hands, Locate X can track people attending certain houses of worship, jurors, judges, prosecutors, and teachers.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">Federal Trade Commission. (2022). <em>FTC Sues Kochava for Selling Data that Tracks People at Reproductive Health Clinics, Places of Worship, and Other Sensitive Locations<\/em>. Press Release.<\/div>\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Article:<\/strong> The ethical codes of using OBT (17 pages)<\/h3>\n<p>Review &#8220;The Ethics of <a href=\"http:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/6\/files\/2023\/02\/OnlineBehavioralTargetingJCIRAFinal.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Legal and Ethical Challenges of Online Behavioral Targeting in Advertising<\/a>&#8220;. <span style=\"background-color: #d1d1d1\">You only need to review the parts about the ethical codes related to OBT<\/span>. You are free to skim the other parts related to all of the methods of data collection if it would help you with your project. <strong>The main focus of this piece begins on page 18 within the PDF under the heading &#8220;Ethical Analysis of Online Behavioral Targeting and the FTC Principles and Guidelines&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">Alexander Nill &amp; Robert J. Aalberts (2014) Legal and Ethical Challenges of Online Behavioral Targeting in Advertising, <i>Journal of Current Issues &amp; Research in Advertising<\/i>, 35:2, 126-146, DOI: 10.1080\/10641734.2014.899529<\/div>\n<h3><strong><span style=\"background-color: #993300;color: #ffffff\">\u00a0 \u00a0 Required\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/strong> Article: The case for banning OBT (5 pages)<\/h3>\n<p>Review\u00a0<em>The New Republic<\/em> &#8211; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/147887\/ban-targeted-advertising-facebook-google\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ban Targeted Advertising<\/a>.&#8221; David Dayan makes the case for banning targeted advertising altogether. He suggests that not only does the &#8220;surveillance economy&#8221; fail to deliver anything meaningful to advertisers but he believes building massive databases of metadata creates an attractive target for hackers. The risks outweigh the perceived benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Dayan argues from both a business perspective and from an ethical perspective. As you read, consider whether Dayan&#8217;s commentary is a strong argument for banning OBT, or whether his argument would be weaker if the OBT system had a few tweaks.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">David, D. (2018). Ban Targeted Advertising.\u00a0<i>The New Republic<\/i>. Retrieved from https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/147887\/ban-targeted-advertising-facebook-google<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left\">Optional: Supplemental resources related to OBT and publicly obtained data<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/marketoonist.com\/2021\/07\/zeropartydata.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marketoonist &#8211; The personalization privacy paradox<\/a>: This brief article describes and illustrates &#8220;Zero party data,&#8221; a category of user data that is intended to be different than the third-party metadata described above in OBT. If you are furthering your studies in Marketing, this might be a trend to follow.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/privacybadger.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Privacy Badger<\/a> is a browser extension that blocks trackers. Review what it claims to remediate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Center for Financial Research<\/strong> describes how metadata from one&#8217;s digital footprint is being used as a basis of determining credit worthiness. &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fdic.gov\/bank\/analytical\/cfr\/2018\/wp2018\/cfr-wp2018-04.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">On the Rise of the FinTechs\u2014Credit Scoring Using Digital Footprints<\/a>&#8221; includes the following statements:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The growth of the internet leaves a trace of simple, easily accessible information about almost every individual worldwide \u2013 a trace that we label \u201cdigital footprint\u201d. Even without writing text about oneself, uploading financial information, or providing friendship or social network data, the simple act of accessing or registering on a webpage leaves valuable information. As a simple example, every website can effortlessly track whether a customer is using an iOS or an Android device; or track whether a customer comes to the website via a search engine or a click on a paid ad. In this project, we seek to understand whether the digital footprint helps augment information traditionally considered to be important for default prediction and whether it can be used for the prediction of consumer payment behavior and defaults.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;Using more than 250,000 observations, we show that even simple, easily accessible variables from the digital footprint equal or exceed the information content of credit bureau scores. Furthermore, the discriminatory power for unscorable customers is very similar to that of scorable customers. Our results have potentially wide implications for financial intermediaries\u2019 business models, for access to credit for the unbanked, and for the behavior of consumers, firms, and regulators in the digital sphere.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>BBC News<\/strong>: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-46543324\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bereaved mother criticises Facebook over baby ads<\/a>.&#8221; This article describes how a woman who suffered the loss of a stillborn birth continued to receive targeted ads for baby products and related content no matter how often she objected to the ad placements through Facebook&#8217;s feedback mechanisms. This article will give you a sense of how, despite the incredible capabilities of OBT, it is not &#8220;intelligent&#8221; enough to know when circumstances in a person&#8217;s life have changed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CBS News:<\/strong>\u00a0&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/ai-babysitting-service-predictim-blocked-by-facebook-and-twitter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AI babysitting service Predictim vows to stay online after being blocked by Facebook and Twitter<\/a>.&#8221; Find out why\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.predictim.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Predictim<\/a>, an app designed to evaluate the risk of the babysitter you intended to hire (which sounds like a good idea), turned into a problem so unmanageable that the service was suspended. This is relevant in this chapter because it is predicated on the ability of the system to &#8220;scrape&#8221; social media content about an applicant.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldprivacyforum.org\/about-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The World Privacy Forum<\/a> is a research organization on the forefront of examining privacy issues in the digital era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"menu_order":5,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":"cc-by"},"chapter-type":[47],"contributor":[],"license":[52],"class_list":["post-57","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-standard","license-cc-by"],"part":26,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/57\/revisions\/283"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/26"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/57\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/com680\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}