Internet debate focused on a controversial practice by BlueKai, Inc. Tuesday. After BlueKai’s CEO was quoted in a Wall Street Journal piece on Internet spying, the Bellevue, Wash.-based data exchange company grew to become one of the hottest topics on the Web . The Journal article is the first in a series saying cookies that get data about browsing habits are “spying on consumers”. Disagreeing with the Journal’s stance, BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakoi said that it is dangerous to the online industry when cookies are called spying.
Browsing habit data recorded on BlueKai cookies
To exploit a marketing niche online called “data exchange,” BlueKai was founded in 2008. TechFlash reports that BlueKai compiles anonymous consumer data collected from cookies on leading travel, automotive and retail sites. Online auctions created by BlueKai invite bids on the data from advertisers. Advertising networks pay for the BlueKai cookie data because they can target individuals whose browsing habits indicate they may have a real interest in buying a specific model of automobile or a flight to a select getaway destination.
Data exchange online a flourishing trade
Each day, BlueKai sells 50 million pieces of data about the browsing habits of specific individuals, as outlined by the Wall Street Journal. The series of reports is billed as a saga about how spying on Internet users has become a bigger, more intrusive business than most people suspect. The newspaper conducted a study that found the nation’s top 50 websites installed an average of 64 cookies per user, usually without warning. Cookies scan what individuals are doing and assess location, income, shopping interests and medical conditions. These profiles are marketed on stock market-like data exchanges by corporations like BlueKai.
CEO stands up for BlueKai cookies
BlueKai CEO Omar Tawakoi fought the Journal with a rebuttal published on Advertising Age. BlueKai cookies, Tawakoi said, enable marketers to show individuals ads with stronger relevance at a more effective frequency. Content providers benefit from the revenue produced. 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 that 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 customers, which BlueKai does with an online registry. BlueKai’s online registry offers to show individuals what cookies get about them and lets them set preferences about what the business is allowed to use.
Find more info on this subject
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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