Privacy expert Alan Chapell comments on SafeCount's efforts, and gives his view on the state of cookies and consumer education.
As I write this, I’m sitting in the Phoenix airport -- which is, by the way, one of the few U.S. airports that still allows smoking. And while I’m technically not a smoker, two days in the desert sun combined with the dense cloud of second-hand smoke are enough to make any writer begin to channel Hunter S Thompson. Then again, I wasn’t in Vegas -- I’m on my way home from the Ponemon Institute’s Responsible Information Management Retreat, which was basically a think tank of chief privacy officers. One of the takeaways from the retreat is that privacy professionals could do a better job of engaging those in marketing and other disciplines in order to address our own challenges (more on that in a future article).
Just as those of us in the privacy space begin to reach out to marketers, there are signs that many in online media are looking to do the same in return. It’s always a good thing when marketing, technology and agency people work together -- and especially today, when issues in one realm can easily bleed into another.
These themes arose in September when iMedia’s Executive Editor Brad Berens interviewed Mike Zeman, director of analytics for Starcom IP and a board member for SafeCount. Brad invited me to critique the article. Given the importance of these issues, (and as I’m always looking for opportunities to needle my friend Brad) I acquiesced.
I’m a fan of SafeCount, and I eagerly await the fruit of its members' collective endeavors. I’m also a huge supporter of the concept of public education regarding cookies and online profiling. I think it’s high time for our industry to take our message to the masses. There are many others out there who’ve been doing so for a while now, and it’s gotten to the point where we can no longer collectively sit on our hands. Whether it comes from the advocacy groups, the anti-spyware vendors or others, a lot of what is reaching consumers these days isn’t exactly in alignment with the interests of the online media world. We absolutely need to communicate the positive aspects of our business.
As SafeCount and others begin to discuss their next move, I thought it might be helpful to share some of my thoughts. My goal, as always, is to stimulate dialogue -- so here is the Chapell View on the state of cookies and consumer education.
We need to build consensus on what the real issues are
When we talk about the “cookie problem,” it often seems like we’re talking about technology -- first party / third party, how many are deleted, by whom or what programs, et cetera. But this is not really an issue of technology so much as it’s an issue about the way we use that technology. In other words, it’s the behaviors -- our use of cookies and the consumer response -- that we need to be addressing.
On a similar note, I’m growing increasingly concerned that there are those in our industry who seem to be abandoning the third-party cookie, as if the technology is so inherently problematic as to be not worth keeping. This strategy, (if that’s what you want to call it) effectively throws every company that uses third-party cookies under the proverbial bus.
So what we really need, in conjunction with consumer education, is a set of industry standards for our own cookie behavior. What types of behaviors are ok? Which, if any, should be prohibited? And what types of notice do we need to provide for which behaviors? These are not simple challenges, but it is critical that we begin to address them if we want the online channel to continue to flourish.
The bottom line
As I’ve mentioned, I support what SafeCount has set out to accomplish. I’d like to see the organization succeed in its mission of consumer education, and I’ve offered to help those efforts in any way I can.
If you agree that these issues are important, I’d encourage you to speak with your industry trade association(s) also and ensure that they understand that you think they are important.
SafeCount’s name underlies its mission -- to find a counting method that is considered safe by everyone. This is certainly a worthy goal. But we should worry if this means ceding too much territory to those who have already decided that cookies are dangerous. Doing this would be to avoid the technological arms race, yes, but it wouldn’t exactly be finding middle ground. We’d just be retreating -- dealing with symptoms and not the underlying causes of consumer distrust.
One thing that all of us seem to agree upon is the accountability of online media. Advertisers have much more information by which to evaluate and optimize their online campaigns than they do in any other medium. Accountability is our collective strength -- it’s our A game. But the accountability of our medium is being threatened at the very time many of us are talking about online taking center stage in the media mix. We need to all be talking about these issues -- and what’s more, we need to be taking action.
What’s your plan?
Alan Chapell, CIPP, is president of Chapell & Associates, a consulting firm that helps companies understand privacy and incorporate consumer perception into product development. He has been in the interactive space for more than seven years with firms such as Jupiter Research, DoubleClick and Cheetahmail. Mr. Chapell is the New York chapter co-chair of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, publishes a daily blog on issues of consumer privacy, and taught a class on privacy and marketing at NYU this past summer.