The term “Big Data” is definitely a leading contender for the marketing buzz-phrase of 2012. On November 11, 2011, a Google search on the phrase “big data” got 252,000 hits. By April 4, 2012, that had number increased by a factor of 5,000, to 1,390,000,000 results. And for good reason
The public’s focus on consumer privacy in the past few years has also brought with it a heightened awareness by marketers of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). In addition, with the FTC’s increasing scrutiny and corresponding enforcement actions, as well as their recent proposed updates to the regulations, the issue of marketing to children in the digital world has gotten substantial publicity.
It’s only March and it has already been a very busy year for privacy professionals. In January, Viviane Reding, Vice President of the European Commission, announced a proposal to reform the European Union’s data protection framework. On this side of the Atlantic, the White House recently released a lengthy paper titled “Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World” with the intent of finally launching comprehensive federal privacy legislation in the United States.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is the core concept underpinning all discussions of information privacy, and a fundamental definition in related legal statutes. The idea of PII is simple enough: information that can be used, by itself, to identify an actual person. However, creating a simple, specific definition of PII is elusive because most personal information can become personally identifiable if combined with other information.
Predictive analytics have proved a powerful tool for overcoming many of the pitfalls of traditional customer segmentation efforts. By defining the characteristics of segments or groups, and then predicting the value of those customers, marketers have a tremendous opportunity to focus limited marketing resources to the customers with the largest strategic and return on investment benefits.
This white paper explores the topic of predictive and adaptive customer segmentation in three parts:
It seems like everyone is talking about content management systems (CMS) these days. So what are they, why do you need one, and how should you go about determining which one is best for you?
Simply put, a CMS is a prepackaged website with the ability to edit and publish it yourself. It comes with all the structure of a fully functioning website except for the content, which you have to enter in yourself.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 2000 was passed in response to a 1998 Federal Trade FTC report that highlighted the growing concern for children’s privacy on the internet. In particular, the FTC was concerned about the collection of data from children via websites, message boards and other online venues. The final COPPA rules stipulated what must be included in a privacy policy, when and how to seek consent from a parent to collect a child’s personal information, and the responsibilities that a website operator has to protect children’s privacy and safety online.
As marketers, we want good data about consumers so that we can craft meaningful and personalized messages. Consumers want marketers to help them filter out irrelevant information. Despite these well-matched objectives, marketers and consumers often hold different opinions on the role of privacy rights.
For consumers, privacy is typically an individualized concept based on experience. They know a privacy violation when they see it. But, they may not be able to tell someone in advance what will constitute a violation.