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What an interesting, and absolutely terrifying post!! I was aware of BCI for those who suffer from physical limitations & the wonders it provided those individuals to connect & communicate with the world. However the thought of employers and Facebook using BCI technology for collecting data on personal thoughts is downright terrifying. It sounds like a sci-fi thriller gone wrong, just in time for 2020 Halloween!

Lindsay, thank you for a very educational post! I hope that no company will ever have such profound and invasive access to my brain unless medically advised. I can appreciate it when technology is giving a second chance to individuals with disabilities. The goodness of humanity really shines through in cases you mentioned (practical medical application). But I can see the dark side of technological advance if infused with the wrong motivation. I guess it’s a matter for an ethical debate. My only hope is if or when we reach the stage of tech progress, you described there would also be a set of laws regulating brain data collection and utilization.

What an insightful post, Lindsay! I completely agree with you when you say you would prefer your employer not see how attentive you are during the day. I’m so curious to see how BCI’s advance in the future and which companies prefer to use this technology or not. The concept of BCI’s have really strong pros and cons; for medical reasons I’m on board with it 100%, as for Facebook and employers… not so much.

Great post, Aksana! I completely agree that consumers need to arm themselves with knowledge to make these decisions. However, I do also feel that this type of information should be easier to find. I think some companies are doing a better job of being transparent and forthcoming about what they use data for (i.e. Apple). This article on Inc.com outlines a few other companies who are being transparent about their data collection: https://www.inc.com/kayla-matthews/these-4-brands-are-super-transparent-about-how-they-secure-your-data.html

Companies really should have a page dedicated on their website that outlines what all they collect data for and how they use it. Consumers should also be able to easily track down what data companies have about them and decide to have it removed or not. I’ll admit, I have not kept record or track of every form, app, service I’ve allowed to collect data about me. I can’t even begin to image what it would be like trying to track all of that information down myself. The US government should also have a comprehensive federal law in place about protecting consumer’s data.

Great post Aksana! You remind me of a discussion we had last Fall (I think) about the companies accessing certain health metrics of bus drivers (?) If I recall, there was a positive and a weird negative benefit. Postive in that “good” behaviors can be rewarded and used to satisfy insurance cost-lowering incentives, but what about the negative side. If an employer had this information for two candidates, would they be at risk of a new type of discrimination? For example, Candidate A is in good health, eats nutritious meals and exercises several times per week versus Candidate B has frequently posted pics of holding a bottle of beer or their double bacon and cheese sandwich recipie on FB. Does Candidate B pose some weird health risk and therefore higher insurance costs to the company so they go with Candidate A? The ifs and buts of these scenarios are a maze of morailty and ethics to which everyone has a perception of right or wrong responses.

Hi Aksana! Great Post!

I agree with your comment that we have to take responsibility for making sure we know how and where our data is being used, but somehow it feels like taking ownership is in direct conflict with the mobile optimized experience, right?

For example, the pop-ups we now get when we land on a site anywhere “Please accept/decline that we use cookies to…” seems like a nice gesture and obviously a liability/legal gesture. But have you tried actually digging into a particular company’s privacy policy? It’s a nightmare! It takes time to read the fine print and then once you actually make sense of the legal jargon, you end up being taken down a rabbit whole of links to choose if you “really” want to know more information. Then you have to remember what it was you were trying to accept/decline. I agree with Lindsay that companies should make the policies easy to read and find therefore making the experience for consumer not super cumbersome, but I wonder if companies (for the ways they try to be “transparent”) are actually banking on customer’s not being savvy enough to read the fine print? After all the new “accept/decline” policy has just been added to the mobile optimized experience with the click of a button. Like “click here to get this quick bit of housekeeping out of the way before you shop”. If you don’t have time, you’re going to click the easy button, right? Lindsay’s article points out that: Some companies particularly understand why transparency matters and have prioritized information and visibility but is it true that there might only be (4) companies that are making it easy enough for people to understand the fine print? I agree that we as consumers need to educate ourselves, but we need to also hold the companies who shop from accountable. And clearly there is yet much work to be done on this front.

I think shift the us way from such a high beef died is a great way to address many different issues. It would do wonders for the environment. It would also help the average American’s health. I grew up in the Midwest, we would have red meat at least 4 days a week, the other 3 was fast food or chicken. By diversifying our diet, we would be able to live healthier lives. These are the kinds of solutions that are needed for wicked problems. Ones that address other wicked problems so they can pool resources to achieving both goals.

You raise some incredibly important issues here; the environmental impacts of producing animal meat, the health impacts of eating meat, and the lack of access to healthy food for many people in this country. It will be interesting to see whether Beyond Meat will be able to make a difference in these areas; I’m certainly glad to see the work that they are doing to get their product to more people. Personally, I have only tried the product once, and though I (think I ) was open to it, I really did not like it. I’m hopeful that other similar products will enter the market, and that they truly help to reduce our consumption, I think it is vital to the health of the planet.

Dannie, what are your thoughts on eliminating the need to work with many companies by creating one centralized data “broker” for all companies to work with?

No one wants to empower the government to be the broker of this data, but a national data pool of sorts would be easier to govern, access and evaluate.

There’s a lot of discussion on the concept of transacting directly on personal data. No surprise, it is not as straightforward as it sounds:

Paying Users for Their Data Would Exacerbate Digital Inequality

Dannie,

This post is great! You made some very interesting points about mass data collection on consumers. I understand that companies I do business with collect shopper data. I do similar things as a marketer on users who interact with websites I manage or email campaigns that we send out.

However, as a consumer I definitely think there needs to be more transparent and consumer-friendly data collection policies. I think that being able to use the product or service while at the same time withholding personal data is hugely important. This will be the key differentiation between data collection and personal data privacies that are consumer friendly and those that are not.

When I download an app or land on website, I know they are tracking me, and I see the privacy policy prompts appear requesting my permission. The rock and a hard place comes into focus when you realize you cannot use some apps or services without enabling 25 pages of legal speak worth of data collection.

That would be amazing if the consent wording consisted of a clear and concise overview of how it’s being used, Dannie. I Think that’s a great idea. Sometimes I’m the one writing terms and conditions and privacy policies for websites, and some templates really cover a lot of bases with theirs. They’re a little different, because the privacy policy is meant to protect the consumer where the terms and conditions are meant to protect the website owner. I’m usually breaking down the basics of what really needs to be communicated to protect both the consumer and the website owner. It often boils down to:
-we run google analytics
-if you give us your info in a form, then we’ll use it to communicate with you but not sell your info
-there are other 3rd party companies we collaborate with, and we can’t control what they’re collecting or doing
-don’t copy our website’s content without our permission or blame us for anything you didn’t like (lol…I wish I could just say that last part).

While it would probably be legally safer to cover even more bases, I also feel like getting way too wordy with it feels more like a trick.

Great post Dannie! At this point, companies are truly collecting and selling data to make a profit, which will, in turn, provide a ROI for the buyer company. It’s a rat race of who can serve the most ads to their target markets, rather than asking themselves “Are we ensuring the protection of this data?” Companies are covering their bases by providing the pages of legal jargon, but also know consumers will glaze over and just agree to it.

Like Dan said, if you don’t allow certain apps to utilize your data, you essentially opt out of using the app. Just like when we receive emails where we have the opportunity to unsubscribe, consumers should have the ability to “unsubscribe” or opt-out of having their data collected.

Great post Dannie!

One would think that since data is so accepted in today’s day and age companies would prioritize how it is collected and how it’s protected. Part of me is excited about the new ios14 and how users have more say in how their data is used and distributed, but part of me wonders if that will still save us from breaches like you shown in your graph above. Like Christina said above, how many people actually read the legal jargon and fully understand what it is we are and are not agreeing to. Or do you think we will see more people with the ios14 opting out? Your graph shows the opposite, so why would Apple make this a feature? I will love to see the outcome of users having more say in how their data is and is not used and how that will affect breaches and data misuse in the future.

Love this and love the dual irony of needing to hire a third-party gatekeeper to keep oversight on the use of your data by third parties!

Do you think privacy policies are sufficient? Do they exist to inform your users, or merely to cover the brands liability?

Interesting article Sara. I agree, I don’t know how many times I think, “how did I not think of that?”.

This seems like a great tool to protect consumer/user data. I like the concept and wonder about the continuous conversation around privacy, if this would be a tool that companies would integrate/partner with into their sites as a show of good faith on protecting their users’ data. As more laws are created to protect data, there may come a time when companies have no choice.

Great post Sara – I agree that we will start to see more companies like this emerge in the near future as people become more aware of their options when it comes to data privacy and sharing. Agreed with Greg’s comment above about the irony of needing a 3rd party to help keep your data private, while still giving access to Mine. It will be interesting to see how we are marketers have to adjust as these new types of technology emerge.

Great post Sara! Mine sounds awesome and is something I would be interested in using. Today’s privacy policy’s are insufficient. There are too many loop holes which is why I feel there just there to cover brands’ liability. I took a look at Mine’s website and really liked their explanation of why they started the company:

“We appreciate the ease, convenience, and benefits of being online. But we firmly believe that your personal data is yours to own and yours to give away. Imagine if you went into a restaurant, enjoyed a nice meal, and paid with your credit card, and then when you leave the restaurant, they decide to keep your credit card. That would not be OK, right? So why do we all treat our data differently? Your data is personal. It’s not just statistics – it’s your identity and sensitive information that could be used against you. We help people take ownership of their data by allowing them to make their own choices and take back what’s rightfully theirs!”

Its interesting and eye opening to see it explained like that. I’m looking forward to see how this type of company will be received in the US.

Sara, this is such a cool find! I wonder if the end users who whisk through agreeing to Terms and Conditions would be more inclined to use this app, as opposed to reading a novel about privacy policies? I would personally love to know which services I’ve agreed to provide my data to that I’m no longer using, yet are still using my data.

Awesome post, Sara! I think more and more companies will start to implement Mine to protect their user’s data in the near future. This is something I would also like to use personally to get a better idea of which companies have a close insight to my data. I am also wondering how us marketers will have to adapt to this data privacy technology.

Katie – This is awesome.

I was thinking about Greg’s comments with his Amazon Prime Credit Card – 5% off of purchases on Amazon and that he’s essentially selling his data for a 5% coupon. (I think I captured that right at least).

The question I have – what negotiating power do we really have? I can’t exactly email Jeff Bezos and say, “sorry… I need 10% off to do this credit card. What do you say to that ‘bro?” For now I guess it’s 5% or 0% and maybe some discount is better than no discount?

Sorry you had to go through this for what seems like an innocent and generous public service!!! This is certainly one of those wow moments in my opinion. My knee jerk is to say “no way you don’t need to tell them where you are going for PTO!!!!” Looking into this it seems that this is a frequent enough question that employers do have this right as long as it doesn’t seem discriminatory. It’s still shocking, I tend to be on the conservative side on social media because I was always taught “don’t post what you wouldn’t want to be on the front page of the newspaper” but never really though my employer was watching. It’s definitely something that I will always keep in mind that they are all always watching.

This gives me all kinds of negative feels. I am clearly out of my league in the ways of human resources, but I have to ask, is the Richland Area Chamber and Economic Development a direct competitor to your organization? Or is this the way Big Brother is making sure you’re doing company-related work on company time by scouring the company chat for keywords? I find it odd that you were called out for taking PTO to earn money if it poses no threat to your organization’s bottom line. What about holding a garage sale? Must that be approved? 😕

Holy schmoley, James! I’m not even really sure where to begin! First off, your writing style is so incredibily engaging! The scenario you described is super unfortunate and lastly, I’d LOVE to hear about your tour of the prison (former Cleveland-, Columbus-, Cincinnati-, and Athens-Resident).

I feel a little funny for you regarding the handed to you printouts, that took premeditation! Was there a concern you engage in “questionable” activities on your free time so they were “building paper” on you? This is the question I have been grappling with myself over the course of this program and learning exactly how beneficial these personal (Torri the Consumer) insights are to me (Torri the Marketer). I am in the school of thought that if I don’t want my Dad or my Employer reading it, I shouldn’t post it. But even in class we had the prompt of if someone should be fired for attending a KKK rally? My answer to this is NO, despite what others think should be my obvious answer. Short of committing a crime or participating in said actitivy during COMPANY TIME that goes against Company policy, I just don’t agree with all of decisions resulting from the access, let alone whether the access itself is Kosher.

I’ll end by saying, I read and article recently, https://allpryme.com/employee-privacy-laws/employee-privacy-laws/ that discusses several facets of Privacy in Social Media and the rights Employers have. To your Geo-targeted question and to the question of Employers finding (and using) personal content against consumers or employees, my answers stay the same for the very public nature of Social Media. The minute you hit post, your personal statement, story, pictures, etc are no longer your own. I used to get on my little brothers for some of the raunchy crap they were posting on Facebook. Yes, they were young, no they weren’t looking for jobs right at that moment, however once something is posted, you lose control of the content and how it’s used.

Granted, this is somewhat veering from your experience, I do still feel similarly with your situation if you had the conversation on a company asset/ network. The day companies start using personal texts, sent using personal phones, to individuals that are not a part of the company nor was it sent during company time, let’s have another discussion.

James, there is steam coming out of my ears right now, signaling a burst of anger. I already imagined how I would wish that supervisor a pleasant (not) trip to a place far, far away. But I have to stop and remind myself that I have scrutinized potential candidates’ social media several times as a part of the hiring process. And during the interview, I had my brain already slightly primed… Hmm. I had also suspended a worker who posted a picture of being at the sporting event, appearing in great spirit and health despite calling out sick. So I guess I have no place criticizing your superiors.
On the other hand, your story also confirmed my underlying hesitation to share my plans, no matter how benign and irrelevant, with…well, anyone at work (at least in writing).
But still, somehow, I can shake off the feeling of the company’s wrongdoing or at least overstepping the boundaries. It reminds me of some sort of “regime”…

Ugh, the horror stories at your job make me cringe. This just seems so unnecessarily dramatic. Glad it all worked out in the end and you weren’t in any trouble. However, it’s certainly a thing we all need to be aware of – the fact that our employers or potential employers do scan our social media and our IT teams oversee our inner office chats, our employers are like Big Brother, always watching us. I do agree we are entitled to our PTO without having to share the reasoning too!

James! Omgoodness! Firstly, Great post! and Secondly, I’m so sorry you had to go through that experience!

Because I started out as a singer/songwriter before deciding to settle down and start a family. My social media platforms were full of my musical experiences, on the road, off the road etc. When I decided to go back to a normal life and get a graduate degree, I discovered after I was hired that my social media platforms were used as a pretty heavy source for discussion – Even though much of my professional experience prior to me taking a stab at a music career were all in corporate and academia, and I had a degree and more and 10 years of qualifying experience to perform the job. The Topic of conversation was “Yeah but she was a musician so…” While I am very proud of my decision to pursue a career in music after college ( I toured Africa, UK twice, charted in the top 10 overseas and in the top 100 for my niche market in the US and earned Grammy nomination credits, so what’s not to be proud of, right?), Yet it is part of my journey that still follows me in my professional career and sometimes not in a good way. What I have done since going back to academia, is not post on social during my work hours and if I take a day off to take a paying gig for example, b/c I still get to those fun things even though I’m relegated to singing on Zoom lol!, I don’t post until after I’m done with the event and usually I’m mindful that the post hits after work hours. My audience generally doesn’t comment on posts until 9pm on a weekday or in the afternoon on weekends so that helps me know when to post. But to Greg’s Question: “Where’s the line between protecting their interests and encroaching on yours?” It should depend on a solid HR policy (which should include privacy encroachment guidelines, right? Like whether or not you are using the “company logo” and/or anything company-related to promote your own off the clock activities could be determining factor. You were “off the clock” and doing what you are good at doing — which is why your company hired you I presume, but taking advantage of a great opportunity on “your” own time. One final point — I know where I work if I say I’m taking a sick day and I posted an activity on social that clearly shows I’m not sick — I could potentially get called to the carpet for it. But if I take a vacation or personal day, to do my own thing, I’m expecting not to be flagged for posting a pic of me and my son at the pumpkin patch.

Great post as always, James! My immediate reaction while reading this post was iritation and rage. How dare your employer invade your privacy like that while using your earned PTO?! I am intentionally vague when I enter PTO requests. If I have a female annual wellness exam scheduled during normal business hours, I can assure you I will just enter the request type as “FMLA: PTO Vacation” and write in the memo to my supervisor “doctor’s appointment”. I would throw a fit if they requested more information regarding the doctor’s appointment and would certainly cause a headache for myself and HR.

Perhaps I would grab coffee or lunch after the appointment and post my latte art or turkey sandwich to my Instagram story. Does that really matter to my employer if I chose to grab a bite to eat during my day off? It’s my time. It’s important to be aware that our employers can monitor any part of our digital footprint. For these reasons, I have a private Instagram account and I even block my stories from my coworkers to try to separate my work and personal life further. I am also very careful about what I say in our Microsoft Teams chats and emails because I know that our IT deparment reserves the right to monitor these channels. However, I can’t help but think, “do they really have the time, resources, or bandwith to do so?” I am not sure that I am important enough on the corporate latter to raise an eyebrow in the organization.

It also really rubbed me the wrong way that your supervisor asked if you were aware of HR policies regarding generating a second source of income. You were volunteering and were not being paid for your time.

P.S. the use of strikethrough text was cracking me up lol

There’s no denying planned obsolescence is real in spirit, if not in literal practice, but it would seem a bit extreme for the device to turn on you while possibly still under warranty! Unless you bought it on launch day, there may still be time to file a claim.

Assuming your phone resumes its normal function or gets replaced by Apple, it’s worth thinking about how the value of your data deprioritizes the device. Apple is unique since they protect their ecosystem and make privacy a hallmark, but for many manufacturers, the device is a loss leader in order to get you on their platform, etc.

Think of all those smart home “starter kits” where the bridge is included at no charge or similar concepts.

I’m optimistic you just have a lemon as Apple puts a pretty high premium on quality. This seems a bit out of character for the experience they want to curate, but it could be a sign of an internal shift in their positioning.

Do any of you factor obsolescence into you purchasing decisions? Does the fact you can seamlessly “reboot” your profile from a cloud back up on a new device lessen the anxiety about your device performance?

Great post Bob, very informative. I would have no doubts this is happening to you. I feel like my family and I were victims of this with Verizon’s data plans a few years ago. We had a plan that was fairly inexpensive per month for a certain number of GB per month (I don’t remember how many). Around the same time, Verizon was pushing its new unlimited data plans. Magically, we started going over our data plans each month and had to pay extra per month for going over, even though our usage/habits had remained the same. There tactics basically pushed us into the unlimited plan, which was more expensive than our previous plan. The most suspicious part of it all was that our device could tell us how much data we were using but there was a disclaimer that verizon may total our data usage differently… how convenient.

I had no idea planned obsolescence was a real thing. I thought it was all in my head that when a new Apple announcement happens that my devices start breaking down. Is this a bad thing or a really good marketing strategy? Either way, they get me every time to where I am the Apply junkie running to the store for a new device.

Thinking about data, is it possible that Apple focuses so much on the new releases that there is a cut off of updating the older devices. Just how many programs are not optimized for Internet Explorer or there comes a time that you HAVE to upgrade your software?