The Great Eye Of Mobile Advertising That Sees All | TechTree.com

The Great Eye Of Mobile Advertising That Sees All

Mobile tracking just got scarier.

 

It's official, your mobile devices reveal a lot of information about you that you aren't aware of, and this exactly what advertisers are counting on, all in the name of knowing customers better.

Tracking is a harsh word, it's said, and Drawbridge prefers to call it "cross device precision marketing". This basically is designed to let marketers target precisely what individual consumers like, based on their online activity across platforms be it a smartphone, tablet, or even laptop/desktop.

The idea is simple and nothing new, in the older cookie tracking way, you could track what users are surfing for on their browsers. However, cookies do not follow people from desktop to mobile and neither do they work for apps. This is where leveraging technology in a new way can benefit advertising.

How does it do this?
Drawbridge, among many other start-ups (Flurry, Velti, SessionM), figured out how to follow people without cookies (which are frowned upon) largely based on monitoring apps people use and the places they go. Thus, a profile is made based on usage patterns to determine whether a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or a desktop belongs to the same person even if the devices aren't connected to each other. The data gathered, is collected anonymously, so no marketer will have personal identifiable information such as you name. For more details, check out how the technology works here.

Interestingly, Drawbridge claims their technology to be so precise that it can even detect spouses using the same tablet, and display different ads depending on the usage pattern. Other companies, such as Flurry, get to know people from the apps they use, so even if you jump apps from Facebook to Amazon, the ad will follow you showing relevant information.

Is it Legal?
Yes sir, it is. In fact all software/app makers have to mandatorily show post a privacy policy that states clearly what their app will do, and what information it will collect, which most of us users are comfortable sharing for freebies, such as games or interconnected app goodies. Besides who really reads boring privacy policies right?

Advertising is nothing new, what's different are just new ways to gather more information about the user. Whether it be through computers, mobile phones, or wearable tech of the future, we will only see more and more of the "so-called" intrusiveness, all in the effort to make more money. But isn't that something most of us are ok with, anyhow? Why else would we use free social media services, free games, or free apps that we find so essential in our lives now? As it is said, "There is no such thing as Free Lunch", and it is free lunch that most of us like, isn't it?

(Via NY Times and Venturebeat)


TAGS: Mobile Phones, Tablets, Desktops

 
News Corner
IMP IMP IMP
##