Pub Talk
By Rob Yoegel
About Rob
Rob Yoegel takes an active role in North American Publishing Company's online efforts including content, sales, marketing, usability, functionality and vendor relations as Vice President, e-Media. Rob works directly with publishers and editors in developing a consistent strategy from print to online.
A former journalist, Rob has been involved in Internet strategies since 1996 serving as an associate editor of Target Marketing magazine, where he regularly contributed articles related to the Internet, including e-commerce, Web site design/development, e-mail, fulfillment, customer service and marketing integration. He also spent one year as publisher of PhillyTech Magazine, a regional technology magazine published by Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. E-mail him at ryoegel@napco.com or call (215) 238-5344.
The Digital Market
Pricing and the iPad Digital Magazine
Jul 20, 2010First of all, congratulations to all magazines that have taken the plunge into the world of the iPad. You...
Media Vent
The New, Simple, Easy, Fool-proof Method for Any Magazine’s Success
Jul 8, 2010For some reason, the latest mantra in the print world is that we have been saved and proven to...
Byte Back
For Advertisers, Will QR Codes Blend the Print-Mobile Experience?
Jun 9, 2010Ignoring Harold Ramis’ (playing Dr. Egon Spengler) dire warning: "Don't cross the streams," advertisers are daily crossing the...
The Sites You Visit May Know More About You Than You Think
NebuAd executives told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that the Redwood City, CA-based company doesn’t collect personally identifiable information or keep the data it collects for an extended period of time through the relationships it built with Internet Service Providers (ISPs). If you follow this trend in online advertising, you’ll find it very similar to the Facebook Beacon service that received plenty of attention late last year in countless blogs and mainstream media.
NebuAd’s business model and other behavioral advertising services have led to privacy concerns regarding Web surfers knowing and fully understanding the types of information collected about them while they click away online.
“Many consumers express concerns about the privacy and data security implications of being targeted,” said Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, as reported by PCWorld, Look past how much (or how little) a 66-year-old, farm-raised, elected official from North Dakota actually knows about this stuff and realize that just like e-mail issues of 10-plus years ago, the biggest concern is understanding the desires of each person and allowing them to opt-in or opt-out of any targeting or other service.
Tracking your online habits is happening all around you, but you just don’t know it. One e-newsletter that I subscribe to used this as the click-thru to a story I wanted to read:
SITE.com/2008/on24-introduces-virtual-show-solution?utm_source=bm23&
utm_medium=email&utm_term=ON24+Introduces+Virtual+Show+Solution&
utm_content=RYOEGEL@NAPCO.COM&utm_campaign=NAME_OF_NEWSLETTER
+07.09.2008
This URL allows the publisher to track the story I read and when I read it (among other things), all in Google Analytics. When I decided to get this e-newsletter, I don’t remember agreeing to this, and now I wonder whether my e-mail address and the other information the publisher knows about me is shared with advertisers without my consent.
The Web was built as an anonymous information channel. It seems that those days are long gone.
Perhaps we need a reverse "spam blocker" built that will keep all that info from getting out. I'm surprised someone hasn't come up with this yet...or have they?