Behavioural targetting really is one of the biggest (if not THE) buzword in online advertising. Being able to offer the right product at the right time to the right audience, based on past behaviour clicking on ad banners, on pages on a corporate website, within email newsletters or a mixture of all of the above. Scary, if the consumer becomes that predictable. There is a good article at the globeandmail.com:

For example, a person comparing automobile brands online is likely interested in buying a car. Behavioural targeting narrows those categories further: Is the car a model that would seat a family? Did the individual inquire about hybrid vehicles, suggesting interest in protecting the environment? Did they also look for an infant’s safety seat? From that data, enough information could be gleaned about a person to know that they might be interested in not just the latest Volvo or Honda model, but perhaps biodegradable diapers as well.

That could be interesting, a nice way of „manufactured serendipity“.

But what about data privacy? May be I don’t want companies to know exactly what I am clicking on?

Companies purveying these services purport to protect individual privacy by opting not to link behavioral data with the names and addresses of Web surfers.

That’s real nice of these companies. I am just glad I live in Germany, where data privacy is much more strict and this kind of privacy protection is not optional but mandatory!

(via marketing vox)