Internet debate focused on a controversial practice by BlueKai, Inc. Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal boosted the Bellevue, Wash.-based data exchange to the top of Google trends when an article about Internet spying quoted BlueKai’s CEO . The article, number one in a series, alleges that cookies are “spying on consumers” when the programs collect data on browsing habits. Disagreeing with the Journal’s stance, BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakoi said that it is damaging to the online industry when cookies are called spying.
Browsing habit data recorded on BlueKai cookies
In 2008 BlueKai was a start-up created to carve a marketing niche online in “data exchange”. TechFlash reports that BlueKai cookies on leading travel, automotive and retail sites compile anonymous consumer data. BlueKai then creates an online auction where advertisers bid on the data. Because BlueKai cookies track browsing habits, advertisers pay real money to target individuals who have shown they might be interested in a unique escape destination or vehicle model.
Data exchange online is big business
Each and every day, as outlined by the Wall Street Journal, BlueKai puts 50 million bits of data about individual browsing habits on the data exchange. Its series, billed as an investigation on the business of spying on Internet users, reports that data collection on consumer browsing habits has grown more intrusive than most people realize. The newspaper conducted a study that found the nation’s top 50 web sites installed an average of 64 cookies per user, generally without warning. Location, income, purchasing interests-even medical conditions-are recorded by the cookies. Businesses for instance BlueKai package and market the customer profiles on data exchanges that work like the stock market.
CEO stands up for BlueKai cookies
BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakoi fought the Journal with a rebuttal published on Advertising Age. Tawakoi said cookies give advertisers the flexibility to show consumers ads they are more likely to be interested in, also as control the frequency with which they are presented. The revenue ensures that content providers are compensated. He said a “less polarizing” discussion would be helpful and the Journal calling cookies spying is “misleading at best and damaging to the online industry at its worst “Tawakoi suggested the Journal’s insistence on saying that cookies are spying is misleading and damages the productive growth of the online industry. Tawakoi proposes making online data collection methods more open to people, which BlueKai does with an online registry. BlueKai shows consumers exactly what is known about them and gives them control over what data they’ll allow the business to use.
Further reading
TechFlash
techflash.com/seattle/2008/12/BlueKai_gets_105_million_to_help_advertisers_target_shoppers36189094.html
Wall Street Journal
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940904575395073512989404.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940904575395073512989404.html?mod=googlenews_wsj%3c
Advertising Age
adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=145208″
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