A deep dive into digital marketing

a hot topic in congress and the senate

Posted by Chris under Technology, Twitter, privacy

This week two hot topics out in Washington, Privacy and Twitter. Well not really twitter but using “new” channels such as Twitter and Qik to communicate with constituents.

I’d suggest you first take a read to Aaron Brazell’s techsailor, in which he as excellent coverage, links, and consolidation on the issue. First I think it’s great that members of congress are taking advantage of tools to better communicate with their constituents and secondly since it’s using blogs, twitter, qik that’s even better.

On Privacy, the senate is taking a look at behavioral targeting and tracking. Or as Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D said, he was concerned that behavioral targeting is like someone following you around from store to store, taking notes on what you do. He said he was especially concerned that a web search for medical terms such as “dementia” and “post-nasal drip,” followed by a search for information on a California trip, followed by a search for a rock group, could create a behavioral profile that could follow him for years.

Hey Senator Dorgan, ever bought a book from Amazon as a gift (and not classified it as a gift), and all of a sudden you’re getting recommendations for books that you really don’t want. But seriously it is a smart issue to look at, I’m just a bit concerned about the understanding of the people looking at it. But AdAge has a short article on the hearing and the washington post has more.