In this episode, the guys continue the previous discussion about the evolution of digital analytics at a basic foundational level and the ethical considerations marketers should consider. Chad shares a personal story about being considerate of feelings of intrusive marketing practices and Nico advocates for more ethical leadership in the advertising industry.

In the first part of this episode we cover:

* How ad tracking works* Why ad tracking exists and how advertisers use it* What companies like Google and Facebook know about you, just from following your digital breadcrumbs* The advantages of ad tracking for both marketers and consumers

In today’s episode we discuss:

* Main privacy violation rules* Cases of privacy violation that actually made it to court* Ethical aspects of ad tracking* How can the ad industry improve

There have been many attempts to create a single privacy protection standard: 

In Feb 2020, Kristen Gillibrand, Democratic senator from New York, proposed the creation of a Data Protection Agency. This federal agency would enforce US laws on data privacy and conduct investigations into potential violations.  As with any such legislation in the United States, the concerns of business and industry are weighed heavily (some would say far too heavily) in the process.  As of this recording, the Congress.gov website says the act was introduced on February 13th, was “read twice”, and was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. It hasn’t been discussed or voted on since.

Out of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Zoom, the worst offender when it comes to violating users’ privacy is arguably Facebook. Repeatedly, to concerns about users’ privacy, Mark Zuckerberg has issued statements or given testimony before government bodies, in which his response has essentially amounted to: get used to it. 

Zoom’s terms of service not only give it the right to extract data from users and their meetings, that data can (and does) also make its way to advertisers like Google. Since more and more public attention has been drawn towards ad tracking, and consequently to Zoom, in particular, the video call service has quietly rewritten its privacy policies.

Unsurprisingly, one of the companies that finds itself on the wrong side of protection issues the most often is Google.  In 2012 Google was ordered to pay $225 million to settle charges that claimed the company lied about user data privacy in Apple’s Safari browser.  In the fall of 2019, Google (and YouTube, which it owns) were fined $170 Million after being sued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General of the state of New York for illegally collecting personal information from children without their parents’ consent. 

In May of this year, the state of Arizona sued Google over allegations it illegally tracked Android users’ locations, even when they’d turned off location tracking settings.  Just this summer in June, Google was sued for $5 Billion for supposedly tracking “private” internet use. The class-action lawsuit alleged that Google was tracking millions of users’ activity even when their browsers were set in private or “incognito” mode. 

Marketers don’t need to steal private information to get what they need in order to barrage consumers with ads because most of it is signed over willingly when the user clicks ‘agree’ on the terms of service. Companies like Google and Facebook may (or may not) have their ulterior motives for violating privacy laws,