Privacy on the Web: Is It a Losing Battle?

Article published at Knowledge Wharton

Visit the Amazon.com site to buy a book online and your welcome page will include recommendations for other books you might enjoy, including the latest from your favorite authors, all based on your history of purchases. Most customers appreciate these suggestions, much the way they would recommendations by a local librarian.

But, what if you visited an investment site, only to find advertising messages suggesting therapies for your recently diagnosed heart condition? Chances are that you would experience what Fran Maier calls the "creepiness" factor, a sense that someone has been snooping into a part of your life that should remain private.

Maier is the Executive Director of TrustE, a nonprofit that sets guidelines for online privacy and awards a seal of approval to companies meeting those guidelines. She was a speaker at the recent Supernova conference, an annual technology event in San Francisco organized by Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach in collaboration with Wharton.

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Brain Sensor for Market Research

Brain Sensor for Market Research

Article published at Technology Review by Kate Greene

Market researchers have long sought people's assessments of not-yet-released advertisements and products. But when people recall how they felt during a commercial, for instance, they often can't accurately describe what their reactions were at each moment in the 30-second spot. Now a San Francisco startup called Emsense claims that it has the tools needed to monitor a person's true reactions during an entire commercial or video game.

The company has developed a sensor-laden headset that tracks brain activity using a single electroencephalography sensor (EEG) at the forehead, and other sensors that monitor breathing rate, head motion, heart rate, blink rate, and skin temperature--all of which can be indicators of whether a person is engaged or excited. In addition, says Hans Lee, chief technology officer at Emsense, his team has built proprietary algorithms that find meaning from the data collected by the sensors. Founded in 2004, the company was originally developed to build an EEG-based video-game controller. (See "Connecting Your Brain to the Game.") Recently, though, the team found that using its technology for market research is more lucrative. And, as the political season ramps up, the company is testing its system internally on campaign ads.

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The Inundated Consumer

Brand Channel.com it is my favorite branding magazine.

Alycia de Mesa writes this article: A Branding New Year, about Branding Predictions for 2007


One of these predictions. . . . .





The Inundated Consumer





"I believe that brands in 2007 will begin to experience an increasingly hostile resistance to the relentless invasion of privacy that marketers are unleashing on their unsuspecting audiences. I'm not talking about 'privacy' as in identity theft; I'm talking about privacy as in the need to live through a solitary moment when we're not battered with unwanted commercial messaging. There's a limit to the unsolicited marketing messages that audiences can handle, and we're going to see that limit come into plain sight, beginning in 2007."





Lynn Upshaw


Principal, Upshaw Consulting Member,


Marketing Faculty, Haas School of Business, UC-Berkeley


Read more predictions. . . .