Partner Article

Are you being stalked ……..!

From: Mike Jones of neogain in Hull….

The internet is still as much a fascinating a place as it is an integral part of our daily lives. While it is vital for web-based businesses that might not otherwise be trading, it nevertheless impinges on even the most mundane of our daily activities.

If you are catching a bus, you can check the timetable online. If you decide to order a Chinese take-away meal, you can do so online. If you can’t be bothered going out in the pouring rain for a newspaper, you can read it online.

But does the internet sometimes take liberties with us? Liberties we sometimes take for granted, yet if thought about, can be quite intrusive.

Mike Jones, managing director of Neogain, the Humberside-based web development, design and search-optimisation specialists thinks the internet does indeed at times take liberties with us. Mike explains:

“If you search for website to purchase a flight from, you may see an advertisement for a hotel appear at the top of the page. Further searching for, say, car hire, and the same hotel advertisement appears. And again, you may look for a site to check out the exchange rate, and once again, the same identical hotel advertisement pops up.

“It’s the non-internet equivalent of driving through town and seeing the same advertisement for a product on every advertising hoarding you pass.

“I’m of the professional opinion that companies should perhaps think twice when they sign-up for pay per click advertising that results in the production of this bombardment.

“Consumers can feel they are being stalked by advertisers, and to a degree, I have to question whether this is really acceptable. I have no problem with those who use this marketing method ethically, but when it used by those who don’t appreciate the finer points of Google-assisted marketing, and it consequently gives the appearance of being spam-like, then I do have concerns.”

According to Mike, the EU cookie (a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user’s web browser while a user is browsing a website) law (the e-Privacy Directive) which was updated

in May 2012, is perhaps not quite clear enough for the majority of consumers who lack insight into the actual implications of computer cookies.

The cookie Law guidance, talking, as it does, about “implied, implicit or actual consent” to allow them on a computer, he feels is shrouded in too much Eurocrat-speak to allow consumers to make their own informed decision. He feels that a website asking consumers “to accept cookies” without telling them why, is plainly and simply just not sufficient, and he feels a bland “this cookie helps enrich your visit to our site” statement is not as forthright as it could be.

“Consumers have a right to be made more aware of what happens when these cookies are stored on a computer. The fact that most consumers don’t realise how these cookies function is really no excuse. They need to be told that certain cookies will result in more direct advertising to their web browser.

“And in a similar vein, advertisers must shoulder some responsibility to ensure they don’t abuse the cookie privilege by bombarding consumers with their advertising. These advertisements really shouldn’t be showing up more than three times a day, and even then, I sometimes consider that too many to be really productive for either the recipient or the advertiser.”

He goes on to conclude that users must be ‘provided with clearer and more comprehensive information about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information’ and that users need to be very clearly asked for their consent.

Mike also feels that the Information Commissioner’s Office should perhaps simplify their interpretation of the ‘rules’ to make it that much easier for consumers to make an informed decision about whether or not to accept the request to place a cookie on their computer.

For further information please contact:
Mike Jones, Managing Director
Neogain Digital Limited, West 1, West Dock Street, Hull, HU3 4HH
Mike.jones@neogain.com
[http://www.neogain.com](http://www.neogain.com/portfolio“ target=)
Tel: 07857 922 999

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ed Moss .