Doc;
I’m reminded of a former boss of mine who used to say when i kvetched about something or other, “It’s nice to want things.” At the time I had a technical job and, like most geeks, I assumed that I knew how to run the business better than the business people. Therefore I assumed that the latest system or upgrade that I wanted was good for the business, and that the stupid executives that turned down my requests didn’t know what they were doing. It wasn’t until I started working with and then in management that I understood that there was a broader view of the whole enterprise. My technical view of what I needed to be a more effective sysadmin couldn’t be the tail that wagged the enterprise dog.
Many of these conversations about analytics remind me of that. Ad networks and publishers are caught up in what they know and, like myself as a system administrator, are making decisions that aren’t good for the whole system. Adtech can’t be the tail that wags the Internet dog. When one sector dominates an economy, especially with monopolistic type controls, the results are not good. We’ve seen this movie before, in multiple sectors, and the usual result of profit maximizing behaviour that’s decoupled from peoples’ preferences is regulation - and usually heavy handed regulation.
I don’t believe that there will be a ‘best’ VRMy solution. To paraphrase Mencken, “For every complex problem, there is a simple and elegant solution. And it will be wrong.” That means that there will be multiple solutions to multiple problems. From my point of view, these include.
1. Commercial tracking has to be decoupled from state surveillance. Much of the same technology that ad networks use can be used by state actors, whether authoritarian or other, to track citizens and/or controls their access to information. So long as we build technology to that facilitates tracking without data subject knowledge and consent, we are building technology that can be used for state surveillance. Having the conversation about advertising, tracking and blocking as if that only impacted the commercial space is naive at best. That leads to point 2.
2. Privacy will be the default setting. Right now, no one who has read the headlines or has some knowledge would be a fool to trust any Internet based transaction. We each trust some vendors or some clients but we don’t trust the system. That won’t be fixed until the default end to end settings on connected devices and systems is private and secure. And where that doesn’t work, we can go to point 3.
3. "Release the Kraken.” In this case the kraken is the social media lynch mob. Currently this weapon is being directed against individuals, by and large. This is usually a reflection of the lesser demons of our nature. In most cases this is a disproportionate punishment for the individual offence. Perhaps it’s time to hold the executive decision makers accountable at the organizations that do the data collection or produce and release the software that enables the tracking?
So what’s the “best” VRMy response? Find a vertical or sector that you know and disrupt it with a solution that structurally puts the user in control of their information, is private and secure by default, and alerts users to violations of their intentions to empower them to react.
Sincerely,
John Wunderlich
(@PrivacyCDN)
On Sep 19, 2015, at 5:49 AM, Doc Searls <
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This is from a pitch by an adtech firm to Linux Journal. I was cc’d, as you see. I’m leaving out the name of the company:
Begin forwarded message:
Subject: New Analytics in Industry
Date: September 17, 2015 at 9:54:06 PM GMT+2
Just in case you would like to learn more, I wanted to let you know some more about our new advanced analytics in our Apple and Android Native Branded Apps and HTML5 web viewers for publications (one upload/one admin system). This is only the beginning, and from my understanding, better than what Adobe DPS, Google Analytics, and others are offering right now. This will be great for publishers and advertisers alike. Publishers will be paying by data point impressions.
Here are the data points we will be tracking:
Apps:
Downloads
Opens
Page turns
Time spent on each page
Page zooms with double tap
Pages zooms with pinch
Links clicked
Search terms
Social links clicked
Email shares
Access help
Full screen mode
Access archives
Pages bookmarked
Logins
Who’s rated
Preview views
Table of content views
Library views
Page navigator use
Issues deleted
User preferences Wifi only or 3G and wifi
Remove app data
Pages accessed by text view (time spent on each)
Purchases (totals and amounts for each and what issue)
Subscriptions (totals and amounts for each and what titles)
Video plays
Web viewer:
Opens
Page turns
Time spent on each page
Page zooms
Search terms
Links clicked
Social links clicked
Email shares
Print (what pages)
Access help
Page navigator use
Full screen mode
Access archives
Purchases (totals and amounts for each and what issue)
Subscriptions (totals and amounts for each and what titles)
Mobile access or web
Video plays
Other:
Device type
Geo location
Would you be interested in a follow up discussion?
What matters about this is that it’s attractive to publishers, who want maximal data about how their offerings are working with readers.
What matters to readers is that all of this stuff is tracked with their involvement but without their permission.
What would be the best VRM answer for this — one that readers (in Linux Journal’s case, paying subscribers) can offer to publishers?
Doc