When the barista at Starbucks has my caramel macchiato with whip ready before I even order it, I’m surprisingly okay with that. I’m not even totally concerned that the guy at my local bodega (corner store, forgive the city slang) asks about my mom and boyfriend, even those he’s never met them. But when Facebook ads are eerily accurate in terms of my political stand point and obsession with cats - hold the phone, stop stalking me Internet! Data mining in the digital world seems to be a bigger threat to personal security than any other instance now days. This doesn’t stand alone for social media platforms like Facebook or Myspace (if that’s even still a relevant platform to be a part of) but also huge corporations who utilize considerably illicit benefits of data mining. In the article written by Kashmir Hill titled, “How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did”, thanks to the art of seeking out patterns in a persons shopping routine, the store was able to send coupons to the girl for discounted baby items; even though she never informed Target that she was pregnant based on compiled information of her shopping habits Target was able to infer (and correctly at that) that she was indeed pregnant. Is this cause for ethical concern? Of course! Stealing information, virtual stalking, these are at the center of most digital ethical concerns. If the tables were tuned, would the target corporation want their every move monitored? Probably not, because then we would have noticed a long time ago the amount of data tracking of customers they were engaged in. If Target considered Rawl’s Veil of Ignorance as the metric standard for ethical behavior, they would have seen everyone’s interest and not just their own. They definitely would not have wanted themselves on the receiving end of data mining.
This type of “targeted marketing” is a great cause for ethical concern. Marketing in it’s purest form should be the selling of an product or service based on how efficient and and worthwhile investment it will be. Marketing should not be based on the compilation of customers information and spending habits. There should be a level of respect between retailer and consumer, and the level of professionalism and respect for privacy should go beyond the cashier and be embedded in the programming of the system. Although companies want to be “helpful” and just give the customers what they need, there are boundaries that should not be broken in this process. While our marketing and advertising motives have shifted heavily from good product promotion to customer exploitation and stalking, maybe taking in to account Kants Categorical Imperative would help these big companies choose whether or not they want to engage in their customer data hoarding. If Target, and other companies considered a law being made on the tactics that they use to target customers than I guarantee they would re-consider their actions. As if, 1984, The Matrix, and Minority Report don’t already give a grim possible look into a heavily surveyed society.
In the case of the targeted marking, coincidentally done by Target, in the article discussed by Kashmir Hill, the managers ethical obligation to the irate customer is to rectify the problem immediately, ideally. But, the manager seemed to have no idea of what the customer was talking about. Given the customers anger, the manager was right in apologizing profusely for such seemingly random and suggestive coupon dispersion to the customers daughter.
In the article discussing Target’s data mining technique, there was a discussion on the companies personalized coupon booking technique. So, we already know that Target uses personal information to determine which coupon to send you, but in order as to not seem like the creepy peeping Tom, Target adds a bunch of miscellaneous coupons to those books as to not make customers weary to the coupons that are incredibly accurate to their needs. This technique is questionable on many levels; one, while creepy, it’s also quite impressive the lengths that this organization is willing to go to achieve prime customer targeting. Two, while blatantly using data to compile coupons for customers, they are trying to cover up by throwing in meaning less coupons; that’s kind of like of serial killer dressing up as your doorman so you’re unsuspecting of his true intentions. While piling ethical concern upon ethical concern, Target may have benefited by checking through Bok’s Ethical Decision Making list: How do you feel about the action? Clearly, they knew it wasn’t the right thing to do and customers would be creeped out by the accuracy in coupons, which is why they tried to hide what they were doing. Is there another professionally acceptable way to achieve the same goal that will not raise ethical issue? Oh I don’t, maybe legitimate marketing, and respecting the privacy of your customers, and seeing your brand and your product abiding by your institutions code of ethics, just a thought. How will others respond to the proposed act? Given the irate father who wasn’t happy with his daughter receiving baby product coupons, I don’t think they would respond too well.
The practices of Target’s advertising agenda seems to go against the professional code of ethics for advertisers and PR practitioners. One of the first things listed is Native advertising and sponsored client, which states: “The blurring of lines between editorial/news content and advertising/promotional messaging (both in print and online/social media platforms) potentially threatens the ability of consumers to develop informed opinions and to make rational decisions. It is critical that a clear distinction between editorial content and sponsored content be apparent to the consumer.” Although in the Target instance we aren’t talking so much about sponsorship, when Target is specifically using client data to target ads towards them, it leaves little to no room for original decision making on behalf of clientele. What is thought of as a personal decision, which happens to be supported by “random” coupons sent by Target, is actually the meticulous logging of customer transactions, which leads to personalized coupon books, which inadvertently leads to a suggested (yet accurate) shopping list provided from the research that Target has done on you. I guess their logo is more accurate than ever now.
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