While the advertising industry remains distracted by ‘AI’, ‘the future of holding companies’, and ‘what happened at Cannes,’ we continue to ignore the one truly consequential issue that we face. We have spent almost twenty years normalizing an activity that should not be normal – in fact, it should not even be legal.
It is a terribly destructive activity that has had massive negative effects on individuals, on society, and on democratic institutions. The issue is tracking — the practice of spying on us across the web, relentlessly collecting private and personal information about us and sharing or selling that information to anyone who wants it.
With the mushrooming of artificial intelligence into every aspect of our lives, the pressure to end tracking should be intense. Instead it is invisible.
The advertising industry was successful and greatly profitable for decades without tracking. But online media – specifically the powerful online platforms – have convinced legislators and regulators that tracking is essential to their business models. This is preposterous coming from some of the most profitable companies the world has ever known.
We can no longer pretend that we don’t know about the damage that tracking has engendered…
Personal Liberty
Everywhere we go on the web we are being followed. Everything we do on the web is being catalogued. By tracking us, marketers know who we talk to, what we say, where we go, and what we do. They know who our friends are and what our interests are, they can infer what our bank balances look like, what our sexual preferences are, what our political leanings are, and where we are at any moment. The consequences of all this surveillance have become shocking, disturbing, and dangerous.
A report to the British Parliament asserted that by the time a child in Europe is 13 years old the adtech industry has 72 million data points on that child. And Europe has far more stringent tracking regulations than the U.S.
Advertisers used to use advertising media to impart information. Today they use it equally to collect information. Doc Searls, author of The Intention Economy says, “Online advertising is tracking-aimed junk mail that only looks like advertising.” While only one online ad in a thousand may be clicked on, virtually every one of those ads is capable of enabling the collection of data about us.
Political Polarization
You don’t need a PhD in political science to…
