The internet has one of the highest concentrations of user data in the world. Each day, every minute, and hour, billions of people are online all over the world. As they browse the internet, they leave details of themselves, here and there. Our digital footprints are all over the internet, and digital marketers and advertisers are all over the internet hunting for users’ data. Information about their location, biodata, phone numbers, sites visited, favorite shopping items, and preferences. The tools used by digital marketers and advertisers are ubiquitous, pervasive, and could, in some cases, be invasive.
Using countless data capturing and analytics technology, digital marketers gather an incredible volume of data ranging from consumer behavior, and professional and business interests to predictive analytics. Consumer data are a treasure trove that companies regularly collect, store, manage and share among themselves. These data are collected for several reasons which include improving customers’ experience online, making better decisions regarding services being offered, learning about customers, and using the data collected about them to develop targeted ads. Digital marketers and online businesses, corporations, and advertisers have built a completely new industry devoted to data collection, storage, and selling to third parties. Below, we examine the types of data collected by advertisers:
- Personal Data: One of the most important data internet companies and advertisers collect about internet users is personal data. Users’ data includes their Personal Identifiable Information (PII) such as social security numbers, gender, and age, etc., and non-personally identifiable information such as IP address, web browser history, and device identification. These data are collected and processed to send users targeted advertising that aligns with their identity or preferences as a person.
- Behavioral Data: This sort of data includes transactional information such as purchase history, qualitative data such as mouse movement, and product information. These types of data inform the advertiser of the products a customer buys, their likes online, and product usage information. These details give advertisers details of the kind of products and services a customer will likely be interested in and what product they will prefer. This sort of information held about consumers in millions if not billions of people makes it possible for advertisers to make more Ads targeted at users whenever they go online.
- Engagement Data: Digital marketers collect data about internet users’ engagement online. Such data include how consumers interact with websites, social media pages, mobile apps, emails, and text messages, and a piece of vast information about how people use the internet and their pattern of accessing online media. Details about users’ social media pages tell advertisers what social media platforms a user has, how often the user visits their pages, the length of time spent there, and the sort of things the person does there. These details enable the advertiser to know the social media platform, web pages, and customer service websites to direct advertising to target the user.
- Attitudinal Data: Details included in attitudinal data encompasses users’ metrics such as consumer satisfaction, product desirability, and purchase criteria, etc. Apart from collecting users’ information such as location, social security numbers, browser history, and pages visited. Advertisers go deeper to gather an incredible amount of information on how consumers rate their satisfaction with their product, how they consider a product or service desirable, and what criteria consumers use in determining whether to purchase a particular product or service. These data help advertisers in designing their ads, what product to show to a particular group of consumers, and individuals and how to present the products and services.
- Internet Fingerprint Data: Advertisers use sophisticated means, far more sophisticated than cookies and more difficult to evade. One such means of tracking users is a fingerprint. Fingerprinting makes use of a script to gather information about users’ electronic devices, such as device type (personal computer, iPhone, iPad, etc.) and operating systems. It also tracks information such as installed browser extensions, screen resolution, time zone, version of plugin and language, etc. This information put together creates a unique ID for a device and gives advertisers details about what devices a consumer uses and could provide information about the level of interconnection and use. The wholesale collection of data raises privacy concerns and makes users worry about how to protect their data.
Advertisers collect an incredible amount of users’ data. Using cookies and forms of data collection techniques, advertisers collect, store, and manage a wide range of data used for advertisement purposes. The collection of these data is used to deliver targeted ads to consumers. But the collection of these data raises privacy concerns for internet users. To protect their privacy and enhance the security of their data, users can get a Bulletproof Privacy Network(BPN)such as Hoody. It helps you protect your privacy and security. When you use your browser with Hoody, every one of your tabs and website gets a new IP, a new location, and a unique set of Fingerprints, which makes tracking impossible. Hoody Phantom Browsing™ future-proof innovation defeats even the most advanced and invasive techniques of tracking.