Leadpile’s Blog

Privacy groups believe that there needs to be legislation in place to protect consumers on the internet. Many are concerned that data collection of consumer’s internet experiences are not fair to the consumers, unless they opt in to allow this behavioral targeting to happen. The FTC was petitioned back in 2007, however now it is at the point of Congress and potentially enacting a new law(s).
Many retailers believe their use of behavioral targeting has allowed them to have an increase in sales. According to one retailer, “Personalizing a Web site [via behavioral targeting] helps an individual with an intent to find what they are looking for and helps the site owner deliver more content that is relevant to the individual, said Pete Olson, VP of product management at Amadesa.” The new potential legislation is looking at having the consumer “allow” such tracking of their internet behavior. Yahoo has argued that a consumer’s privacy should be respected in order to build trust with their consumers. Yahoo is doing it’s own regulatory data collecting by only keeping consumer’s data for 90 days. However, not all businesses are wanting to implement their own “rules”, therefore legislation seems to be the only way to protect consumer’s rights.
Leadpile will keep an eye on what happens with this potential legislation.

Are you ever watching your favorite television show and some sort of advertisement comes on that really you have no interest in? I know I know a lot of us don’t really care for advertisements at all, but what if the ads that are on your t.v. are things you are potentially interested in? How about if you’re watching a show like Home Shopping Network, and you can then use your remote control, push a few buttons, and charge a purchase from your television? How about voting for your favorite reality show contestant without using your phone?
All these are things that our televisions are going to be soon allowing us to do in addition to relevant commercials. NPRNews points out, “Consumer advocates worry about marketers compromising our privacy by rummaging through our viewing habits and getting us to trade personal information for coupons.” Potentially these marketing companies will know everything you have purchased, however they will not know detail information such as your name. Is this sort of thing crossing the line on your personal t.v time? This sort of thing is already happening with the internet (behavioral targeting) and websites you are visiting (cookies), so why not with your television too? Leadpile Lead Exchange does not use cookies with our lead generation, however many affiliate marketing networks do.

Everything too good to be true.. probably is.  Now all those that were looking to jump in on the online lead generation business, might have someone up above to face.  According to internetnews.com, “A top U.S. lawmaker in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday said he is working to develop a bill to impose mandatory guidelines on Internet companies to protect user privacy, because the current voluntary approach is falling short. ” Privacy advocates are worried that online activity is potentially jeopardizing consumers private information, and there are no regulations to govern it.
Leadpile Lead Exchange believes in only doing the right thing and not jeopardizing consumers information in ANY way. There are a lot of people out there trying to make a quick buck on hot topics in the news, and unfortunately consumers are not always as guarded with their personal information as they should be. Lawmakers stepping in on this industry could lead to some of those not being able to take advantage of consumers, however them stepping in could also create a lot more “red tape” for those doing the right thing. Thoughts?

An updated report has been rolled out protecting the privacy of consumers online.  Behavioral targeting is something a lot of website owners, search engines and other online advertisers do to determine certain information about consumers online activities.  This report was originally rolled out in November 2007, however there was a need to make some updates to the report.

One of the changes made allows websites owners to utilize consumers information for their own website marketing, however they can not share the consumer’s personal information for other gain.  According to DMNews, the report also discusses the potential benefits of behavioral advertising to consumers, such as the free online content that advertising tends to support, as well as the benefits of personalization.” So there is maybe some benefits to behavioral advertising?
The bottom line with this revised report is that the FTC is trying to make sure that consumers are protected while searching online. However, at this point the “leash” is very loose, and it appears the FTC is trying to let the online advertising industry handle this on their own. Furthermore, I am sure there will be some sort of intervention if consumer’s personal information continues to be violated.
Leadpile Lead Exchange believes in protecting consumers information in a way that those that are not supposed to have the consumers personal information do not. We generate thousands of leads per day, and are adamant on making sure we protect each and every one of those consumer’s private information.

According to DMNews last week, recent correspondence sent out by some lawmakers, internet and broadband companies will be taking a look at the advertising they are doing. For example, internet companies track what websites and other details of what their customers are doing online. This information is then used by the internet companies to provide some targeted advertising. Depending on what websites the customer goes to, the internet companies will send out target ads that they think the consumers will be interested in.
Should internet service providers be able to capture all the websites you visit on a daily basis, and use that information to then target specific advertising? Is this considered going too far in order for them to do their advertising?
Yahoo is now allowing you to make that decision and choose to opt-out of them doing this sort of “information gathering”. Maybe other internet service providers will follow in their foot steps. There has to at some point some guidelines that should be followed in order to have some level or privacy, in this BIG BIG internet world.

What would you do if you came across your primary care physician on Facebook? How about if you came across a surgeon that was going to be performing some surgery for you in the coming weeks? Would what you see and read about that person affect your decision to trust them and their abilities?

This is something many need to be concerned about when it comes to blog posts, social media sites and other networking groups the public has access to. Too much information could be a bad thing. Too many negative blog posts could put a negative light on some and affect how the outside world perceives them.
According to a recent article on MSNBC, some researchers looked up more than 800 medical students and residents by name on Facebook.com, one of the most popular social-networking sites with about 80 million users worldwide. Everyone can limit who has access to their pages to just friends, however this information could be sometimes accessed.
The study, published recently in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, “found that nearly half the medical students had Facebook pages, with only 37 percent limiting viewership to their friends.” More than half of those whose pages were open for review provided lifestyle information, including sexual orientation, personal relationships and political views and sometimes opinions, according to MSNBC.
Erick W. Black, one of the researchers, said he found pictures with some students grabbing each others private parts, posing with weird objects, and multiple photos of medical students drinking heavily. Does this represent the image that we all have on those that are potentially taking care of us, such as our doctors?
I have to admit Leadpile Lead Exchange has this blog to posts our thoughts and industry news, however I would still be a little hesitant on posting something that I would some day regret or not want another person to see.