Company claims it is yet to see a single privacy standard that is effective
Yahoo will stop honoring "Do Not Track" requests made by a user's browser. It will now actively attempt to track an individual's interactions with its site and its content.
"Here at Yahoo, we work hard to provide our users with a highly personalized experience," the ironically named "Yahoo Privacy Team" wrote in a blog post. "We keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world. We fundamentally believe the best web is a personalised one."
Yahoo's team claimed Yahoo was originally the first major tech company to implement "Do Not Track," which, in reality, is more of a request from the browser to the website than an order. Yahoo said it had yet to see a single privacy standard that is "effective, easy to use and has been adopted by the broader tech industry." For that reason, as well as its desire for "personalised" experiences, Yahoo changed its policy.
"Personalised" ads, of course, are a mixed bag. On the one hand, if Yahoo knows a consumer is a single man, they won't receive irrelevant ads for maternity clothes. On the other, tailoring an ad to an individual's gender, age, location, and even annual income means that Yahoo can charge far more per ad than it normally would.
Yahoo does allow users to manage certain elements of their privacy via its "Yahoo Privacy Center," where users can manually click a button and opt out of what Yahoo calls "interest-based advertising." Doing so, however, requires users not only to accept cookies into their browser, but also to be logged into Yahoo, across every PC they own, for those privacy settings to be passed along to other devices.
"Do Not Track," of course, allows users to set a blanket statement against tracking across all websites, not just Yahoo. What Yahoo hopes, of course, is that you simply won't bother.
'Intent' is the single largest performance marketing variable. It shapes our search queries, dictates our purchase paths and mediates meaningful interactions with brands regardless of channel, media or content type.
Data has been an increasingly critical factor in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing and business operations.
Discussing the future in a realistic fashion is often a disappointing prospect. For all the talk of hoverboards, jetpacks and lightsabers changing the way we do things, the reality tends to end up being something as mundane as a slightly cheaper way to get around the city.
Episode 2 of the latest BrandHook podcast series on Getting Intimate with Customer Experience is now live!
Hi James, shouldn't marketers also be focusing on collecting and utilizing up to date first-party profiling data on customers so that mes...
Tom
3 ways customer data can increase online sales conversion
Wouldn't reconnecting with younger consumers be in direct contravention of the code on alcohol advertising?
Tim Palmer
Vodka Cruiser reconnects with younger consumers via category-first Facebook Live campaign
Thanks for the article Jennifer, you raise some interesting points. The supermarket and shopping centre examples particularly struck a c...
Jill Brennan
Why marketers should take note of social robots
Winning the retail game is really tricky at this point in time. Many retailers have declared themselves as bankrupt. But yes harnessing t...
Vanessa.M.Magers
Bricks and clicks: Balancing digital and physical to win the retail game
Excellent article, Thank you.
Steve Beards
How Aprimo hopes to help marketers tackle distribution of content, funds and data