Behavioral advertising is, as defined by www.bbb.org, Ads using information collected across multiple unaffiliated web sites that you visit in order to predict your preferences and show you ads most likely to be of interest to you.
While this is obviously a very useful tool,many people fear that it is a violation of their privacy - and that is where this image to the right comes in. But will simply seeing this icon cause people to click? And even if they do click it, will they learn any truly helpful information? I personally am having some trouble believing that the answer to either of these questions is "yes."
After doing some research on their website, I have found that the publishers of www.aboutads.info believe they really will help, but no evidence that they actually will.
I took the liberty of asking a few of the more computer savvy people at my job if they had ever seen or heard of this company or their logo, and to no surprise they all answered "no." I asked them if they thought this company would be of any use to them, and they all answered "no", although half of them agreed that behavioral advertising does violate their privacy. I asked a total of 4 co-workers each of these questions.
So, according to this blogger, the consensus all seems to be the same: www.aboutads.info will be pretty much obsolete before any of your friends even discover what it is.
I like the fact that most of your postings regarding the blogs are negative. Your search for the deconstructive (harmful) evidence that defines the product and it's ability to perform successfully gives me a completely different perspective and helps complete my vision of the product. Although i may not completely agree with you. You certainly have a point. Would this product or service be used in such a fashion that it would benefit the individual using it ? Perhaps... I believe it all depends on the person and what it can do for them.
ReplyDeleteHey now, my first two posts were positive. I like to keep an even balance ;]
ReplyDeleteI think this is another marketing tool of the world wide web to create a sense of trust and confidence of the online consumers towards a website, company, brand or organization.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I though that SSL certificates were only a trend and were not really necessary in a website or e-commerce system with credit card transactions, but now it is a must to have at least one, in these type of websites, mainly because of the consumer's perception of a secured transaction, because the credit card information is already encrypted when you have a merchant account, but having the seal really makes a difference in consumer's confidence whether to buy or not to buy from a website, so now we always suggest our clients to get at least one SSL certificate (seal) for their shopping carts.
I agree with you in that there seems to be no significance in this. To me, it's only an insurance policy for the industry to protect themselves from lawsuits.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for involving your coworkers! Gives us the insight that even internet/tech-savvy folks are unaware of this logo, and that in itself is proof of the insignificance of the Advertising Option Icon.