The realities of online privacy vs living off the grid

When I talk about real-time, data-driven marketing and sales, people sometimes get uncomfortable. All this stuff sounds too much like "Big Brother is watching." People feel there is somehow a creepy, stalking quality to these ideas.

For example, many people get creeped out by Foursquare: "You mean anyone can find out where you are in the world?"

And they recoil in horror about the ways that a company can understand a great deal about you by your online behavior.

Technology is reality now.

Well, there is a choice - but the only option is to live completely off the grid. Other than Ted Kaczynski, very few people are willing to do that.

Sure, when I suggest that a nonprofit monitor the news to see who gets new stock option grants so they can hit them up for a charitable donation I can understand why that seems a bit predatory. That's exactly why it’s imperative to use these tools sensitively.

To learn more about how people's behavior is used by companies in real time, and to get some of the privacy issues out into the open, I spoke with Brian Kardon, chief marketing officer at Eloqua, a marketing automation technology company.

"Not so long ago, a person might actually walk into a car showroom and ask a salesperson questions about the car they were considering," Kardon says. "Today, before walking into the showroom, a consumer has likely read multiple car model reviews online, posted status updates on Facebook and Twitter ['Looking at new Audi A4 . . . Waddaya think?'], downloaded product specs from Audi’s Web site, and a whole lot more. This is their digital body language."

There are hundreds of underlying consumer technologies that record digital body language that are embedded in the devices and services we use every day, including mobile phones, computers, credit cards, electronic toll collection, Web sites, ATMs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and much more. So, in reality, the only way to achieve true privacy is to live off the grid: No credit cards, no mobile phone, no Internet, no car, no bank account.

"Every day, consumers are leaving digital clues about their interests, intents, likes, and dislikes," Kardon says. "Like it or not, every move you make in the digital world is being recorded. That book you bought about vacations in Italy? Yep. That song you downloaded? Yep. That job posting in Philadelphia you looked at? Yep. It is all being recorded."

Companies like Eloqua extract data in real time and make it useful for marketers and salespeople. "There is a lot of data," Kardon says. "Eloqua processes more than 2 billion transactions a day. There is no way for mere humans to process it. And forget about Excel. You need huge servers to store the data, algorithms to analyze it, programs to segment it. At the core, marketing automation is about extracting patterns from huge amounts of data. In the most successful organizations, these three systems are integrated and provide one view of the world, processing your digital body language, and millions of others, often in real time."

As in any human interaction, discretion is essential in any contact with customers. So you will need to use what these new tools reveal about your customers with care and sensitivity. Doubtless, we’re going to see some gaffes that make us wince. But I’m absolutely convinced that tomorrow’s most successful marketers will be those who understand the new real-time technology infrastructure. The winners in the always-on world will be those who are most accurately and quickly driven by data.

Image credit: Shutterstock / 3DDock

Disclosure: I am on the board of advisors of Eloqua

Comments

[David Stott]

"Like it or not, every move you make in the digital world is being recorded"

This may be true, but a less ominous perspective is that consumers and marketers are engaging in a valid exchange of value. In exchange for tidbits of personal data, marketers will use my data responsibly, applying technology available today to give me exactly (or close to) what matters to me. The 'more' I disclose, the 'better' (relevant, personalized, etc.) the exchange. We have a ways to go on a number of these fronts (the transparency in this exhange, responsible data management, best applications of analytics/technology) but the vision is sound.

(After all the research they conducted, that would-be Audi shopper would be very appreciative of free oil changes for a year, no?)

[Dee Rambeau]

Oh but there are loads of people willing to and wanting to live off the grid. Their theory is that none of this Internet stuff will matter much when the grid collapes...

[David Meerman Scott]

Great point David. Done responsibly, marketers can better tailor information which benefits consumers.

Dee - we can hunker down on Nantucket island.

[Joseph Ratliff]

So, to respond using this technology, are we going to have to become the technology itself? LOL.

Terminator, here we come. :)

Seriously, where does a line exist where transparency is going too far? I'm a big fan for companies having to answer to the consumer, and interact with the consumer etc...but I don't see the need for the public to know every little detail about a business (it would be quite boring in fact). But that seems to be where we're headed.

[David Meerman Scott]

Joseph - I think we are testing the limits and will figure out where the line should be drawn. If you've watched the privacy debates surrounding Facebook over the past year, I think that's what's playing out.

Recall that when it first came out, people thought that caller ID was violating the privacy of the CALLER. Now, there are few people who would live without it.

[Teena]

What a sophisticated software to do all the work. Privacy has really becoming an issue nowadays. By the way that was a great info.

[Megan]

I agree with a lot of the posts that are above and I agree completely with Mr. David Scott about there being some really great information.

You raise a lot of questions in my mind and I am beginning to question a lot things within technology and our media system.

[aluminium kozijnen]

Its correct.. Real time project is difficult compared to others.. And also privacy also becoming create issues.. Thanks for sharing this detail david..

[natural energy resources]

Interesting what Eloqua does. Just heard on the radio it could be possible for your computer to monitor the degeneration of your writing and warn you of possible progressive alzheimers !