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Source: AMA Houston
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Archive for the ‘American Marketing Association – Houston Chapter’ Category
Weekly Connection: Special Membership Offer; 7 Emails You Should Never Send; Securing Your Marketing Budget
October 13, 2010The Take on Data Scraping: Smarmy? Ethical? Necessary?
October 13, 2010
The Wall Street Journal calls it part of its WHAT THEY KNOW series: a couple of thousand words about data scraping, in the form of this article by Julia Angwin and Steve Stecklow.
In a nutshell:
…the website PatientsLikeMe.com noticed suspicious activity on its ‘Mood’ discussion board. There, people exchange highly personal stories about their emotional disorders, ranging from bipolar disease to a desire to cut themselves…It was a break-in…PatientsLikeMe managed to block and identify the intruder: Nielsen Co., the privately held New York media-research firm. Nielsen monitors online “buzz” for clients, including major drug makers, which buy data gleaned from the Web to get insight from consumers about their products, Nielsen says.
Marketers are – I suggest – among those who see multiple ramifications to this kind of activity. Jonathan Trenn, president of InterActivate in Washington, DC, notes:
This is real serious. Companies aren’t just gathering data for general marketing purposes, they’ve essentially “breaking into” private forums to gather info on issues related to health, finances, etc.
Trenn has written me, saying:
The part that makes this treacherous is not that companies are using this to gather information for future marketing purposes. It’s that they are willingly and clandestinely entering forums whose users expect and believe to hold a certain level of privacy…
Mary Jo Martin, AMAHouston member and principal of the Cynapsus research firm, shares Trenn’s opinion – in part:
This kind of activity has been going on for years, but is now being discussed more due to the proliferation of social networking and increasingly sophisticated technology.
I have mixed emotions about it. I understand the need for it (as a marketer), but I personally find it…“smarmy.” I think there is a very fine ethical line that has to be walked here…Nielsen crossed it in the example discussed in the article.
Neilsen has behaved unethically (IMO) but it has taken steps to correct this poor practice – read its freshly minted “legacy Data Collection” statement for yourself.
Meantime, Martin extends her comment:
Having said that…people have been very lax in exercising common sense when using social networking sites. If you don’t want millions of people to see and know what you’re posting, don’t post it.
I’m Richard Laurence Baron, AMA volunteer and principal of Signalwrite Marketing. To me, these issues are part of what author Greg Bear has begun calling, “the dataflow age of Internet Everywhere.” For the moment, I’m going to echo Martin and several others:
Don’t put your information out there if you don’t want it collected.
As marketers and social networkers, what do you think about data scraping? C’mon, share your opinion with the rest of us.
Photograph/detail (with thanks): Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal. All rights reserved.
Source: AMA Houston
Related Articles
- ‘Scrapers’ Dig Deep for Data on Web (online.wsj.com)
- ‘Scrapers’ Dig Deep for Data on Web (online.wsj.com)
Houston Wins National Chapter of the Year
October 12, 2010Thank You from AMA Houston Immediate Past President Maggie Seeliger
In 2009-2010, I served a board of more than 40 and a membership of more than 1,000 as chapter president. Last year was my sixth year of board service, having been VP of membership and Energy Marketing SIG co-chair in the years before last year.
I still remember one of my first exposures to volunteering with AMA Houston, when I happened to meet one of our prior presidents at a happy hour. Our conversation led her to introduce me to the person who would become my energy SIG co-chair, my boss as the president before me, and one of my best friends.
From the beginning, my involvement with AMA has been both a professional and personal passion, contributing to my growth as a marketer and my development as a person. Through my time with AMA I have experienced ups and downs in my career, I have dealt with parental loss (twice), I have had a daughter and renovated a house, and in addition to the support of my wonderful husband, the friendships I have gained through AMA have supported me through thick and thin.
My story is just one example of the thread of strength and camaraderie that embodies our chapter and our city as a whole. It is the reason why AMA Houston continues to receive recognition as THE leading chapter of all 76 chapters in the US and Canada. It’s why we have grown to the largest chapter in the country; why our member satisfaction, sponsorship support and number of programs reached an all-time high; and it’s how we set the standard for best practices in association management and marketing. It’s about the people.
Thank you to every single member who continues to renew and participate in our organization. We hope that you are getting the most out of your membership, as there is a lot to gain from this chapter. To those of you who volunteered on a committee or on our board, I hope you realize what a critical role you play. You are indispensible to our chapter. Our win as chapter of the year is something you can take personal pride in achieving and put on your resume. And, if you have not yet joined and gotten involved, I hope that you will reach out and do so, as you won’t regret it.
Congratulations to all of you for yet another huge win for our chapter and for the city of Houston. If you have any comments or questions, please e-mail me at Maggie.Seeliger@Halliburton.com.
Maggie Seeliger
Immediate Past President
AMA Houston Chapter
Source: AMA Houston
