BT recently announced that they would be trialling the Phorm ad network on their ISP backend, and join the ranks of Virgin Media and ‘Talk Talk’ from Carphone Warehouse.
Put simply, Phorm is an ad network that works by recording the pages that ISP customers visit and then serving ads that are more relevant to that user. They use a sophisticated system of unique code numbers as opposed to identifiable consumer data, and will categorise the sites visited in pre-determined buckets.
But there has been consumer backlash, most recently highlighted in a New Media Age survey. It states that 65% of UK adults would leave their ISP if it adopted ISP-based behavioural targeting, and 81% wanted the ability to opt-out.
But I think consumers have got this wrong.
There are a multitude of software vendors that sell tools to remove cookies from your computer, like they were an evil plague. But cookies are used for a variety of applications, and in the context of advertising help the user to have a better experience by targeting more appropriate ads.
This is exactly the business that Phorm is in, they are just monitoring and serving using better technology.
Consumers need to realise that advertising pays for most things they do online. Advertising online is not going to disappear. Advertising is not an evil entity, and as such isn’t it more useful or enjoyable for them to at least be shown campaigns that are relevant to them?
What’s more, consumers are already happily engaging this advertising of this type. Visit any major ecommerce site and you will be shown products that best match your purchasing history. Amazon led the way on this?
Is Amazon evil too?
July 29th, 2008 at 10:06 am
I think the onus is on Phorm and not on web users to get this right and explain it right - and I know they are putting significant effort into that, by the way.
A lot of people are aware of the fact hat advertising makes \”free\” possible a lot of the time - their/our trepidation is around how much we are happy for our ISPs and marketers in general toknow about us.
I\’m not sure that Amazon serves as a good parallel - there\’s a difference between consenting (by signing in) to have your in-store behaviour monitored to give you more relevant offers (making your experience better) and being monitored wherever you are, whatever you are doing online.
There\’s a middle ground to be found, for sure, and I\’m sure we - and Phorm - will find it soon.