GSD&M is an ad agency established in Austin, Texas in 1971.  Janice has been with them for 26 years.  The company was formed to help other companies define and target markets for their products.

 

Ms. Souter said that online privacy is in constant conflict among the main providers in the internet world.  The cost of free internet is covered by advertising.  Your information is collected by internet providers using “cookies” which follow your activity on the internet.  While “cookies” are essential to keep track of things that are in your “cart” when you are purchasing something on the internet, this data can also be sold to other parties and be used to determine your interests and advertise to you, similar products and services provided by other venders.  This sharing of your activity with outside interests is where the problem lies.  While steps have been taken by the government to protect our privacy, the best way to protect your privacy is to delete the cookies from your computer.

 

According to some recent statistics, 79% of us are concerned about internet privacy, but only 41% of us delete “cookies” regularly, and only 30% of us take steps to block “cookies.”  Several years ago, a company by the name of Cambridge Analytica got access to users of Facebook and used the data for political purposes which gave rise to the “Privacy Revolution.”  The result was General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which was passed by European Parliament in 2016 and all firms were required to be compliant as of May 25, 2018.

 

Other steps have been taken to protect consumer privacy by firms such as Apple’s Safari which banned tracking in 2017 and Mozilla’s Firefox which banned tracking in 2019.  Then Apple introduced app tracking transparency in 2021 which was a huge blow to Facebook.  Facebook is currently rebuilding its ads to know a lot less about us. 

 

Now the question is – what will advertising on the internet look like in the future?  According to Ms. Souter, there will be a resurgence of contextual targeting, matching content to environment, like books on the New York Times list advertising reading eyeglasses.  Furthermore, our internet experience may be somewhat more fragmented, and we may potentially see higher prices for goods and services.