For the July blog series, we asked some of Boston's greatest thought leaders to speak on a particularly complicated (but relevant) subject: tracking, targeting, and privacy. Their responses were surprising, fascinating, and applicable - and we think you'll find this series quite interesting! This post is by Tyler Sandler. Tyler a BIMA member and Senior Director of Sales for Evidon. Don’t let his New York area code fool you, Tyler is a native New Englander, graduate of the University of New Hampshire and a Sox fan. He can be reached at tsandler (at) evidon (dot) com.

The irresponsible use of consumer data is the rogue trader lurking in our industry. If unfound this trader can blow up years of hard work and investment. Online targeting options abound but, until recently, little thought has been given to consumer privacy when it comes to tracking and targeting. This is why I challenge you to do something.

Whenever the subjects of targeting, tracking, and privacy come up in the context of our industry, there is always controversy, heated debate, many sides of the story, and opinions mixed with facts. When I miss a few days of headlines I feel like the whole world has changed. The next few years will bring about some of the biggest changes that our industry has faced.  Now is not the time for complacency - it is a time for action. This is our industry’s issue to solve. Given the exponential growth of technology, my children will live in a world where access to information is beyond our wildest sci-fi dreams and, as such, digital privacy could be nonexistent. We are in the early days of setting the standard of what privacy means in our always on, networked, and connected society, and this is why I challenge you to do something.  

For the July blog series, we asked some of Boston's greatest thought leaders to speak on a particularly complicated (but relevant) subject: tracking, targeting, and privacy. Their responses were surprising, fascinating, and applicable - and we think you'll find this series quite interesting! This post is by Chris Emme. Chris is the VP, East Coast for RadiumOne, an innovative digital media company that harnesses social interaction data through its own first party products and delivers audience scale for today's Intelligent Web. In this role, Chris is responsible for all Sales, Marketing, and Operations functions for the NY, Atlanta, Dallas and Boston offices. He works with senior leadership at all major agencies and brands across the East Coast and Southwest to bring innovative media opportunities for their digital marketing objectives. He has grown the team, revenue and regional presence from the ground up and has been a digital media devotee for over 14 years. He  is an avid tri-athlete and new father to his son, Tyler.

Via.me/ChrisEmme @chrisemme Linkedin.com/in/cemme About.me/chrisemme

I rarely speak to people outside our [digital media] industry about the details of what I do. The reason I don’t is that when I get to the part about how consumer data is collected to target ads more effectively, their eyes get really wide and I can see a wave of anxiety come over them. No matter how many times I say that only non PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is collected and that the data is used to deliver targeted/relevant messages to them which about things they may be interested in, it doesn’t matter. Their mind is already in a place thinking about what they posted, commented on, shared, surfed or searched and they’re wondering what “they” know about him.