Recently, eric schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, has become a "red man" on the Internet, and users have changed their heads to photos of eric schmidt.
It's not idolatry, but actually a protest against Google's new advertisement. Google recently launched the so-called "endorsement" advertising policy, which will allow advertisers to use Google users' names, photos, comments and other information on Google+ social networking sites and other Google services in order to endorse their advertising products. This move was accused of violating personal privacy and caused great dissatisfaction among many users.
Google is only temporarily at the forefront. Behind this is actually an inevitable "war" between big data and personal privacy.
Google's new advertisement is embarrassed.
What is the so-called "* * * endorsement" in Google's new advertising policy?
For example, if you Google a restaurant, your friends "Zhang Moumou" and "Li Moumou" may click "Like" or make other comments after eating in this restaurant, while "Zhang Moumou" and "Li Moumou" are registered in real names, and their avatars are also impressive. Then, you will have a feeling about this restaurant, and you may make some consumption choices according to your friends' comments. In this way, "Zhang Moumou" and "Li Moumou" invisibly advertised this restaurant and became its image spokesperson. One day, they may even get some share of advertising fees.
If you are "Zhang Moumou" or "Li Moumou", are you really willing to make such an advertisement and expose your behavior to others? Even if the target of the advertisement is your friend, you may not be willing to share it unconditionally every time. What's more, for you, you may not remember who was here when you left Mo Bao. God knows where this advertisement will appear and who will see it.
However, Google also explained that whether to participate in "* * * endorsement" is actually a user's choice. But if users don't modify their own approval settings, they acquiesce in Google's use of users' information in advertisements.
Even so, Google's new advertising policy has been questioned by "invasion of user privacy". Mark Rotberg, director of the American Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), also accused that it was unfair for Google's new advertisement to commercialize information such as photos of online users. He also called on the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to intervene in the investigation and evaluation. Google users even protested. According to foreign media reports, in a short time, many Google+ users have replaced their profile photos with Schmidt's photos. Once Google decides to use users' photos in its advertisements, these photos will be displayed by Schmidt himself.
Whether it is questioning or protesting, at least Google has not changed its mind and will not change its new advertising policy. Because in Google's view, its competitor Facebook has long adopted a similar social advertising strategy. Google' s move is intended to satisfy.
Indeed, for domestic network users, in fact, this advertising method is no stranger. Sina Weibo will also insert items such as "Friends Listen", "Friends Concern" and "Place Recommendation" into the information flow on the user's homepage, and the ID of the user's friend will be displayed below the items as the advertising image spokesperson of the user.
The spread of this information, intentionally or unintentionally, threatens the privacy of users. Some big internet companies, such as Google, can also explain some terms to users, and whether users participate in "endorsement" can be traced back. Perhaps, these big companies will heroically distribute some benefits to participating users according to the share of advertising fees. However, as long as big companies set a precedent, it is inevitable that some non-standard or even unscrupulous websites will follow suit and use your avatar or other information to advertise without your consent, then your privacy will be completely exposed, and you have no idea what impact it will have on you.
Privacy dilemma in the era of big data
If Google's new advertising policy directly uses user information for its own use, it infringes on the user's personal privacy; Then, in the current era of big data, almost all online business activities are essentially based on the insight or use of users' personal privacy to obtain commercial benefits.
Service providers can know all the behaviors of each of us on the Internet. When we visited a webpage, posted a Weibo, visited a social networking site, or made an online shopping, all the actions were actually recorded by the network department in the form of data. Based on the comprehensive analysis of these data, Google can clearly grasp your web browsing habits, while e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Taobao can know your shopping habits very well, while Face-book, Weibo and WeChat seem to know everything, including your social network. There are also online maps and positioning, which can monitor your whereabouts in real time.
All these "you" information, originally personal privacy, has now become the "inventory" data of Internet merchants. Merchants can identify "you" at any time and explore your commercial value. Google's new advertising approach is just one of them. The so-called precision marketing based on big data is a more common form of privacy utilization.
For example, if you accidentally mention a product or service on a social networking site, such products or services can find you on their own initiative; For example, if you want to buy a pair of snow boots online and browse such products on an e-commerce website, then the related snow boots introduction or purchase links will be continuously recommended to you in the future; For another example, you just searched the address of a restaurant through the online map. You may not have thought about spending in the past, but the introduction of the restaurant or the promotional offers at various times will be pushed to you regularly, which naturally includes the endorsements of good friends involved in Google's new advertisements.
These businesses seem to know consumers better and can reach them directly, but isn't this an invasion of consumers' privacy? "In the era of big data, there is almost no privacy." It is no exaggeration to say. Who are you, where are you, your preferences, your consumption habits, what do you want to do at the moment ... big data can give accurate or close to accurate answers. For Internet companies, only by mastering more user privacy based on big data resources can they quickly occupy more market share. Some people in the industry even define the next round of Internet competition as "the battle of privacy", and user privacy is the core competitiveness.
For example, Acxiom, a world-renowned IT and data service company, has a great appeal in the industry because it has a large amount of data about personal privacy. It is said that it has the personal information of more than 5 million consumers all over the world. Ankecheng can use this information to infer your lifestyle, hobbies and daily activities, such as your car brand and use time, your income and investment, your age and education level. Besides, have you recently divorced or just become an empty nester? These "life events" can transfer a person from one consumer class to another, which is also the key interest of Anke City and its advertisers. Ankecheng claims that it can predict 3000 different behaviors and psychological tendencies by analyzing data, such as what a person will choose between two brands.
Ankecheng left early. However, compared with the original data of Anke City, it comes from some questionnaires or user registration services, which requires a lot of time to accumulate. Nowadays, some internet companies, such as Facebook, are expanding rapidly in data accumulation. Facebook says it can realize the automation and real-time collection of personal information. The company's financial file at the time of its initial public offering showed that the data of each user's pictures and videos on Facebook was about110242 MB, but now the number of Facebook users has exceeded10 billion, exactly 100 Pb (10 Pb).
What's more worth mentioning is that the integration of online and offline services has become a trend. Once businesses start to cooperate, integrate and enjoy big data, users' privacy is really nowhere to be found. As early as February this year, Facebook announced that it would cooperate with a number of data agents including Anke City to build a connection between the real world and the virtual network by integrating their respective data resources. A month later, the chief science officer of Anke City announced that their data had been linked to 90% social files in the United States.
Reject malicious use of personal privacy
Big data is a "double-edged sword". Although fast internet and accurate marketing can bring people a more convenient lifestyle, it also makes the protection of personal privacy almost a false proposition.
Today's big data marketing is like being stared at by a pair of eyes for consumers, spying on your every move all the time. In the era of PC terminals, these eyes may only peep at your online traces. When you subscribe to an online service, send some promotional emails. In this era of big data on the mobile Internet, these eyes monitor you. They can track what you ate, who you met, where you spent what ... and then there will be various services or commodity advertisements that are said to be suitable for you.
Needless to say, the feeling of being monitored at all times sometimes makes people feel insecure. Many times, even the so-called precision marketing under the banner of "knowing consumers better" does not always bring surprises to consumers. Some netizens complained: I once searched for the word "coffin" on Taobao just out of curiosity, and in the following days, I was surrounded by promotional information of various funeral-related products. Not only on Taobao, but also since the cooperation between Alibaba and Sina Weibo, the netizen has opened Sina Weibo for many times, and the products on the side are all selling funeral supplies. "Sometimes it's really creepy to jump out suddenly."
This seems to be a normal state faced by consumers. However, these situations are just over-marketing based on big data, which makes consumers resentful and may not be "malicious". Then, the hotel leaked the customer's check-in information, hundreds of thousands of insurance policy information were leaked, and the express bill was sold on the day of delivery. This shocking news all points to the crazy commercial profit-seeking behavior under the consumption data. These businesses not only maliciously use personal privacy data, but also seriously infringe on consumers' personal privacy.
The "war" between big data and personal privacy has started.
However, as individual consumers, we have long been unable to avoid our personal privacy being recorded by the network system and mastered and used by businesses. Even in the PC era, some users will take measures to constantly clear cookie when surfing the Internet to avoid exposing their privacy, but in fact, many background software can still obtain your online records. In particular, some anti-virus software can protect your privacy in a sense, and at the same time, you can get more comprehensive privacy data. What's more, in an era of big data based on the mobile Internet, through the positioning and tracking of mobile devices, for example, if you bring a mobile phone, the network background system can know where you are through sensors, and at the same time, the intersection and correlation of various data and the comprehensive analysis based on global data can clearly "know" everyone in the background at any time.
Industry insiders admit that in the era of big data, it is technically difficult to protect personal privacy and keep the privacy of individual users.
The only measure we can and must take is to prevent the personal privacy of these users from being maliciously exploited by unscrupulous merchants and illegal organizations. On the one hand, this requires the government and industry regulators to strengthen supervision. However, businesses that maliciously use users' privacy and cause harm to users will be severely punished. On the other hand, Jiang Qiping, secretary-general of Information Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences, once admitted that, in terms of domestic situation, in addition to the regulatory difficulties brought by technology, the lag of legislation also left supervision in an unfounded state. "Although there are relevant laws, they are all very rough. Internet companies know that even if the privacy of users is violated, there is nothing the law can do. "Therefore, it is necessary to establish and improve the laws, regulations and basic rules for the protection of personal privacy.
In fact, all countries, not only China, are facing the same problem. In view of the laws and regulations on privacy protection in the era of big data, countries are also actively taking measures. In 20 12, the Obama administration announced the Privacy Bill of Rights, calling on companies to give users more control when using private information. The European Union has also proposed a bill on "the right to be forgotten". Consumers have the right to ask companies to delete their personal data, and so on.
In addition, technology is still a condition that cannot be ignored to protect personal privacy. Although the existing technical means are far from enough to protect personal privacy, we should actively encourage the research, development, innovation and use of privacy protection technologies. I hope that one day, we can guarantee the privacy security in the era of big data from the technical level and improve the user protection system.
That's what Bian Xiao shared about the "war" between big data and personal privacy. For more information, you can pay attention to the global ivy and share more dry goods.