I solemnly swear I am up to only GOOD!!

The world has been raving about privacy, consumer information and 3rd party data and how corporations are becoming more evil collecting that said data and trading it and selling it without consumer's permission. And to be honest I found myself standing at a crossroad, from one side I am one of those evil corporations in my capacity as marketer and it is part of my daily job to process and understand who my audience are and how to talk to them and where to talk to them and what to offer them! And on the other side I am a consumer myself browsing and surfing the internet looking to read interesting information or e-shopping for needed (or un-needed stuff as my wife keeps telling me) and getting bombarded with loads of customized advertising which without a shred of doubt was in fact customized based on my behavior online and the websites and/or products the I interacted with, and I am baffled to say the least..?

Why do they do it?

?The simple short answer is “Because they can” and allow me to explain what I mean here, as consumers we have forgotten or taken things for granted that these apps and services that we are consuming on daily bases cost a lot of money, these are well oiled and maintained behemoth of machines that needs massive amount of data traffic, employees to run them, marketing budgets to advertise for their offering and services and this of course isn’t for free on those corporations side and while we have grown accustomed to enjoying the best services and even most of the times complain should any of those services are temporarily down totally for free or under the "Freemium" lifestyle; we need never forget that IT IS NOT FREE as my wise grandmother god bless her soul used to constantly remind me that NOTHING in life is for free.

?

How do they do it?

The funny part about answering this question is that it is shared wellingly by you and me and everyone who is using these apps and services and allow me to explain once again, you see 1st party data collectors are not many, and those include the top of the foodchain players the likes of operating system owners or advertising service owners such as Apple, Google, Facebook … etc and while they never force anything on us and we tend to agree on all the rules and conditions before using their services with our own freewill and while one can always argue that the font is small, and language is not easy to understand and do I even have an option of refusing and a million other reason the simple fact is that they asked and we consented to share our data and behavior online with them consequently they collect that said data, catalogue, profile and package them to be sold as a service on its own for the advertising companies whom in return want to increase their sales and revenue ultimately their profits by advertising their products and services to the right consumer that matches their target audience.

"we tend to agree on all the rules and conditions before using their services with our own freewill"

Is it wrong? Is it legal? Is it ethical?

?Its all in the eye of the beholder. I mean it really depends on how and who is spinning this answer off really. But I will share my point of view and I would more than love to hear other different point of views that is for sure. But in short "No, yes and maybe". To explain my views let me ask you something : as a non-smoker how do you feel about constantly having to see cigarettes advertisement? Or kids school summer camps when you are single? Or ski classes while you are living in the desert? (not if you live in Dubai that would make perfect sense) but you get my drift, you see with customization and profiling companies are able to target their Ads to the right -or hopefully right- target audience and hence increase their chances of converting you from a shopper to a buyer and only by knowing you or more information about you that can 1) show you the right product 2) at the right time 3) in the right place and most importantly 4) bother you less with meaningless advertisements that you don’t relate to. So in principle it is a good thing and as i have said earlier this was done with your own freewill consent and to satisfy your online experience more. But (and it was inevitable that there should be a but somewhere) was it totally ethical in the sense of you having a free choice or you fully getting the idea of how big the implications are on you and what if you wanted to opt-out or refuse it what will be your alternative. This is where things get tricky and I can always argue that everyone has the option to refuse or reject or simply un-install but we all wish it was that easy.

?

The Red pill or the Blue pill?

?This brings me to the conclusion of this thorny topic, yes we are all free to make our choices and we cant simply keep blaming the evil corporations for capturing our data and using it as if they stole it. We consented for the rules and we wanted to enjoy this whole “Freemium” lifestyle that we grew to love and we need to always remind ourselves of some simple facts :

?-??????Will I be welling to pay monthly or yearly subscription to most of the apps and services that I am using? If the answer is no then the current situation should suite me just well. If yes then I need to start looking for other paid alternatives where I would buy the privacy of my information with the money I am paying.

?

And my last couple of cents on this topic is while some companies are using this privacy hype to market themselves or their products as safe and private we need to always remember that we are all social creatures and that one of our biggest burdens during the lockdown during the pandemic was the social distancing and that we could not go back to socialize and share with each other as we have always done. Put yourself in the small business owners shoes who without this module of “Freemium” it would have never been possible to any of us to simply know they serve the best kebab sandwich or prepare the most beautiful flower arrangement and most importantly I would have been seeing diaper advertisement all day long after thankfully my twin are nappy free.

"I believe companies are overhyping this whole privacy issue and blowing it out of proportion to better serve their hidden agendas and to compete with each other"

At the end

I don’t think there is a simple answer here and this topic can be debated endlessly but what i know is we used to always fill out marketing forms and flyers to get free discount or free giveaways in the past and this is no different. and I strongly believe as well that our personal data should never be used to influence other topics such as political or racial or anything other than the marketing purpose which it was collected for but that is as far as it goes. I believe companies are overhyping this whole privacy issue and blowing it out of proportion to better serve their hidden agendas and to compete with each other no more no less.