A Little Spy in Every Browser

"Behavioral Targeting" is the term for marketers that keep note of the places you have visited online in order to understand your interests and send you ads only for products that you might actually want.

According to those on the cutting edge of online marketing, this trend is good for the consumer because advertising will become more relevant and personalized than ever before. Critics of behavioral targeting see it as a violation of privacy, one that could become quite powerful if online marketers and others begin to swap information or create a centralized database.

Online marketers say the consumer's privacy isn't really violated since they don't collect names and addresses, just data pertaining to online interests. They also see behavioral marketing as having a very big future. One ad exec quoted in a recent Yahoo! News article predicts that we are at the beginning of "a Golden Age of Advertising."

Gabcast! Club MediaNote #60



Here is a delegation of MC101s in the Los Angeles Times' historic Globe Lobby. It was a fine field trip, as always.

***MEDIANOTE MILESTONE This is the 200th post to Club Medianote. Apparently, it is here to stay.