Presentation at Search Marketing Expo West (SMX West) in San Jose California on history of privacy concerns relative to web tracking.

1. The Path from
Measurement
to Big Brother
(and what to do about it)
Sean Carlos
8 March 2011
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 1/15

2. Measuring Marketing
The Good Old Days
Half the money I spend on
Half the money I spend on
advertising is wasted, and the
advertising is wasted, and the
trouble is I don't know which half.
trouble is I don't know which half.
1st Lord Leverhulme (Lever Bros. / Unilever), later paraphrased by John
Wannamaker (Pennsylvania Retailer) per David Ogilvy in Confessions of an
Advertising Man, 1963
00
19
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 2/15
c.

3. Measuring Web Marketing
Paradise Found
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19
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 3/15

4. Clouds Soon Emerge
The Web is watching you. Some sites
track your every move, record your
Email address, the type of computer
you're using, even the sites you've visited
recently.
To guard your privacy, you
need to conceal your "cookie"
96
Oct. 1996
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©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 4/15

5. The White House and the F.T.C. ...are
exploring what new laws or
regulations will be needed to protect
personal privacy...
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19
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 5/15

6. The Cookie Monster Won't Go Away
05
20
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 6/15

7. Under Pressure, Worldwide
"Privacy protectors
want to prevent use
of (Google)
Analytics"
09
20
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 7/15

8. Not just Cookies:
WWW User Tracking Mechanisms
Browser text file
Cookies e.g. visitor & returning recognition
Flash LSOs Similar to browser cookies
URL parameters
Referral Strings e.g. search keywords in Analytics
Clicks e.g. in Google Webmaster Tools
Embedded images/server calls
Beacons e.g. Email opens, Facebook
HTML 5
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 8/15
Web storage?

9. Typical Tracking Uses
●
Photograph user
activity
– Tools like Google
Analytics, Omniture
●
Conditionally
display content
– Ads displayed by
ad networks
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 9/15

10. No Lack of Industry "Solutions"
Browser Stealth Mode
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 10/15

11. No Lack of Industry "Solutions"
Steve
wouldn't
approve!
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 11/15

12. Enter the FTC "Our main concern is
(& Congress?) the sites and services
that are connecting
the dots between
different times and
places that a
consumer is online and
building a profile of
what a consumer is
doing."
− Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the Federal
Trade Commission
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 12/15

13. Search Marketing Risk Levels ­ SEO
●
Referral strings contain keywords for Web
Analytics reporting
– Already missing: https; blekko
●
Cookies used to identify returning visitors
– Already highly unreliable
●
Click data used in some Webmaster Tools
reports
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 13/15

14. Call to action!
●
Understand data collection methods
– including limitations, transparency needs
●
Review FTC proposal and comments
●
Contact your congressional
representatives
– It is they who will set future rules
http://www.senate.gov/
http://www.house.gov/
●
Don't panic, yet
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 14/15

15. Thank you!
+1 617 765 0250 (US)
+39 02 69 000 333 (ITA)
sean­carlos
Sean Carlos
Web Marketing Training @seancarlos
@sean_it (ITA)
& Consulting
www.antezeta.com/blog
©2011 Sean Carlos ­ Antezeta 15/15