Revision as of 04:43, 23 March 2019

Advertising Ethics Online

The rise in digital media prominence over the last three decades has changed the dynamic of advertising to be much more interactive. This interaction has led to unforeseen changes in human vulnerability when interacting with advertisements. Consumers are presented with advertisements in many more ways than they used to be, leaving older generations unprepared to recognize and react to advertising through new media. More specifically, younger generations are now in an unprecedented role as they consume content from a young age. More recently, technological developments have enabled large corporations to access increasingly private information from consumers such as location, search history, and more. All of this information i then interpreted and used to tailor advertisements to people on an individual basis. This has risen many concerns regarding user privacy, data protection, and corporate transparency in advertising.

Underage vulnerability to advertising

One of the largest ethical dilemmas in online advertising surrounds targeting children with engaging ads. The problems centrally lie in children’s inability to “critically evaluate” advertisements and thus identify their “persuasive intent.”^[1] A study conducted by the World Advertising Research Center found that implicit persuasion, such as the use of celebrities or subliminal messages and associations, play a strong role in persuading children with advertisements. Furthermore, cognitive psychology research has concluded that it is not until at least after adolescence, and often “not until early adulthood” that the brain’s prefrontal regions, which control the response to subliminal stimuli, are fully developed and able to recognize and resist subliminal stimuli.^[2] Therefore, these children are not able to process the information that they are being given, which could be seen as a form of brainwashing.

A study conducted by the Federal Trade Commission in 1997 found that 86 percent of the sites listed on a popular children’s website directory collected “personally identifiable information” from children. ^[3] This led the FTC to institute the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in 2000 in response to constantly rising concern regarding children’s engagements with advertising. COPPA requires online advertisers to gain parental consent when advertising to anyone under the age of thirteen. However, targeting children in advertising is still largely unregulated as “only twenty-three percent of ad sites that collect personal information of children under thirteen comply with COPPA.”^[4][5]

Targeted advertising and privacy

Over the last decade, advancements in technology have led to a now prominent practice in targeted advertising. Targeted advertising is advertising carried out to specific demographics based on classifications of age, gender, location, and purchase and search history, among many others. More personal classifications have generated cause for concern. These targeted advertisements shed light on the lack of privacy in online interactions.

Targeted advertisements are of large concern to the general population, and compounded with the concern of pre-adulthood vulnerability they are even more concerning when presented to younger consumers. There was a study conducted by Masaryk University that surveyed 14-to-16-year-olds’ perceived privacy control and the effects of targeted advertisements. This study found that while “privacy control salience” enabled more probable recognition of targeted advertisements by subjects, the subjects were more likely to be persuaded by the targeted advertisements.^[6]

An increasingly common solution proposed to the privacy concerns of targeted advertising is full transparent compensation for personal information. One proposal published in the Computer Networks journal proposes utilizing ad brokers who offer monetary compensation for personal information from consumers piece by piece and are paid for their services by advertisers. ^[7] Such an exchange fulfills the Nash Equilibrium game theory, in which all players receive the best outcome, and has already come to life via data-payment cafes.^[8]

Transparency issues in online advertising

Issues such as underage vulnerability and privacy invasion via targeted advertisements have led to increased attention regarding corporate transparency in online advertising. But there has yet to be any significant legislation or action taken to correct the concerns in either practice.

In 2011 the American Advertising Federation’s Institute for Advertising Ethics published an outline of Principles and Practices for Advertising Ethics in order to set a baseline on moral objectives in advertising. The central theme lay in transparency, particularly establishing consumer relationships “in a fair, honest, and forthright manner.”^[9] Guidelines like such, however, have no means of enforcement and are interpreted in the industry as ‘suggestions’ as opposed to requirements. Most companies will create and stand by their own privacy and ethical policies, but recent events have led to public scrutiny of such policies.

Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data leak and Google Plus’ API bug are two of the larger scandals that have brought such concerns to the forefront of the legislative agenda. The former breach allowed Cambridge Analytica to access private user data that was used for political persuasion using methods similar to those used in targeted advertising. ^[10]. The latter sprung from a bug in an API update that left private user data exposed to those who might use the API and led to the shutdown of Google+’s commercial platform. ^[11]

References

1. ↑ Nairn, Agnes, and Cordelia Fine. "Who’s messing with my mind? The implications of dual-process models for the ethics of advertising to children." International Journal of Advertising 27.3 (2008): 447-470.
2. ↑ Casey, B.J., Getz, S. & Galvan, A. (2008) The adolescent brain. Developmental Review, 28(1), pp. 62–77.
3. ↑ Jill Austin, M., and Mary Lynn Reed. "Targeting children online: Internet advertising ethics issues." Journal of consumer marketing 16.6 (1999): 590-602.
4. ↑ Carpenter, Keelan. "Ethical Issues of Online Advertising and Privacy." (2013).
5. ↑ Cai, X., and Zhao, X. "Online Advertising on Popular Children’s Websites: Structural Features and Privacy Issues" Computers in Human Behavior. Elsevier. (2013).
6. ↑ Zarouali, Brahim, et al. "“Everything under control?”: Privacy control salience influences both critical processing and perceived persuasiveness of targeted advertising among adolescents." Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace 12.1 (2018).
7. ↑ Wang, Wei, et al. "A privacy-aware framework for targeted advertising." Computer Networks 79 (2015): 17-29.
8. ↑ Schaffel, Chaiel. "No Cash Needed At This Cafe. Students Pay The Tab With Their Personal Data." National Public Radio. 29 September 2018.
9. ↑ Wallace, Snyder S. "Principles and Practices for Advertising Ethics." American Advertising Federation. (2011).
10. ↑ Wikipedia contributors. "Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 Feb. 2019. Web. 15 Mar. 2019.
11. ↑ Wikipedia contributors. "Google+." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 13 Mar. 2019. Web. 15 Mar. 2019.