Behavioral Targeting. Marketing and Advertising adapt to our preferences

Thanks to the Behavioral Targeting, online advertising campaigns can be directed to the users taking into account multiple factors such as the type of content that is read, how much time they spend in the different websites, frequencies and / or most searched keywords, that globally and jointly define a profile that reflects their own interests. The concept is easy. Why bomb with all kinds of advertising if you can know more precisely what really interests the user? If the advertising campaigns are related to each profile, its effectiveness increases considerably.

Obviously to execute these processes it is necessary to have a series of data and information about our preferences and interests, and although initially the Behavioral Targeting systems were devised to identify groups of users with a common and defined profile, its evolution seems to have generated a certain alert about the privacy of our data, behavior and our actions through digital means such as internet.

A recent study prepared by TNS Global, showed the opinion of 1,200 Internet users on advertising segmentation for behavior. Among the data to be highlighted in this study, 71% of respondents said they were aware and knew that their data was used by third parties for advertising purposes. 57% of these respondents objected to this information being used for these purposes although no personal data was included. Although in general and in most cases the privacy of the information is guaranteed and personal data are excluded, there is a high level of disagreement and mistrust regarding these techniques of optimization and segmentation by users.

Only a couple of years ago this debate generated some uncertainty up to the fact that the European Union raised the prohibition and use of “cookies” with the aim of protecting the right of privacy and privacy of users, although because most internet websites depend on their integration was finally ruled out the proposal. No doubt the opinion and vision of the Behavioral Targeting can differ depending on the position in which we find ourselves. Although according to some studies, for users it may seem an intrusive action on their own activity and privacy,