Privacy May Dog Online Advertising

A Texas woman is suing Blockbuster for sharing details of her movie rental and purchase activities with Facebook through the Beacon program, according to the Associated Press. An Advertising Age article I recently wrote looks at the privacy issues that are likely to face those marketing online, and this is a great example. It's not that "real world" marketing is any better. In fact, much of it is worse in terms of the information it collects, coordinates, and uses, but because of the time spans between collection and use, and the lack of apparent connection, this has been largely invisible. However, the digital world is making this more obvious, rubbing the results in the faces of people. Those in marketing had best pay attention, because these are issues that can too easily bite when you least expect them.