Advertising ethics online

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, leading 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 new media and younger generations 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. This has given rise to 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.” A study conducted by the World Advertising Research Center found that implicit persuasion, such as the use of celebrities or subliminal messages and associations, to play a strong role in persuading children in advertisements. Furthermore, research in cognitive psychology 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 (CASEY ET AL)

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 (Emerald insight).This led the FTC to institute the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in 2000 in response to 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. Targeting children in advertising is still largely unregulated, however, as “only twenty-three percent of ad sites that collect personal information of children under thirteen comply with COPPA” (UTC.EDU, CAI/XAO)

Targeted advertising and privacy

Advancements in technology over the last decade 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, previous purchases, search history, and location, among many others. More personal classifications such as the latter three have generated cause for concern as targeted advertisements shed light on the lack of privacy in online interactions. Targeted advertisements are of large concern to the general population, but compounded with the concern of pre-adulthood vulnerability they are concerning when presented to younger consumers. A study conducted by Masaryk University of surveying 14-to-16-year-olds’ perceived privacy control and the effects of targeted advertisements 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 (MASARYK).

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 (COMP NET). 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 (NASH EQ, NPR).

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, yet there has not been any significant legislation or action taken to correct the concerns in either practice.

In 2011 the American Advertising Federation’s (AAF) 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” (AAF). Guidelines like such, however, have no means of enforcement and are interpreted in the industry as ‘suggestions’ more than 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 (WIKI). 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 (WIKI).

References

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