Internet Marketing and the Implication of Data Privacy (Essay Sample)

INTERNET MARKETING AND THE IMPLICATION OF DATA PRIVACY
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Table of Content TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1.0Introduction PAGEREF _Toc54893119 \h 21.1Background PAGEREF _Toc54893120 \h 21.2Relevance and Rationale of the Study PAGEREF _Toc54893121 \h 51.3Research Question PAGEREF _Toc54893122 \h 62.0Literature Review PAGEREF _Toc54893123 \h 62.1Technology and Privacy PAGEREF _Toc54893124 \h 62.2Personal Information Demand in Marketing PAGEREF _Toc54893125 \h 72.3Collection and Usage of Personal Data PAGEREF _Toc54893126 \h 72.4Type of Data Sharing in Internet Marketing PAGEREF _Toc54893127 \h 82.5Implication of Privacy in Internet Marketing PAGEREF _Toc54893128 \h 92.6Theoretical Framework PAGEREF _Toc54893129 \h 103.0Research Methodology PAGEREF _Toc54893130 \h 104.0Analysis and Findings PAGEREF _Toc54893131 \h 124.1Thematic Analysis PAGEREF _Toc54893132 \h 124.1.1Theme 1: Perception of Internet Marketing PAGEREF _Toc54893133 \h 124.1.2Theme 2: Information Disclosure and Data Privacy PAGEREF _Toc54893134 \h 134.1.3Theme 3: Target Marketing PAGEREF _Toc54893135 \h 144.1.4Theme 4: Attitude Towards Data Mining and its Implications PAGEREF _Toc54893136 \h 154.2Discussion PAGEREF _Toc54893137 \h 155.0Conclusion and Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc54893138 \h 166.0List of References PAGEREF _Toc54893139 \h 177.0Appendices PAGEREF _Toc54893140 \h 19
Internet Marketing and the Implication of Data Privacy
Introduction
Background
As technology becomes a core component of the everyday lives of the people, most activities have become dependent on various tools to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their activities. Companies have migrated from traditional marketing to the internet market, which is considered more efficient concerning market coverage and cost. Each moment, organizations are persistently conceptualizing a novel approach to optimizing the application of internet technology to promote a new product, recruit new customers, and improve customer satisfaction. All major companies are now present on social media, indicating the essence of technology to businesses. However, the proliferation of this sector is currently faced with an insurmountable challenge that threatens the reliance on internet marketing. Customers are currently aware that businesses have been storing and using data collected using consensual and nonconsensual approaches. The idea that a particular company retains personal details of unknown nature for profiling and targeting their customer better in internet marketing has not been received well by some parties. People who understand the risk such information presents to the owners if mismanaged are concerned about the matter. Companies conduct data mining to optimize their marketing campaigns. However, several incidences have led to the inadvertent release of personal data belonging to millions of consumers. Such accidental occurrences have resulted in serious public relationships (PR) crisis within the affected organization. The more people learn about data privacy, the greater the threat the internet market faces due to the level of trust consumers have in the safety and confidentiality of the information. The increase in data breaching and activist campaigns could render the use of personal data for internet marketing counterproductive due to the response the practice could elicit from the customers.
Relevance and Rationale of the Study
This study was critical in the field of internet marketing since people are becoming more informed of data privacy violations concerning the collection and usage of customer information. Ferrell (2017) argues that data privacy is a crucial challenge facing internet marketing, and the provision of knowledge concerning the status of privacy scholarship would be critical to address the issue. Despite efforts from organizations to deal with the problem through ethical and legal methodologies, other challenges such as cybercrime and online fraud still pose a challenge to data privacy. Martin and Murphy (2017) argue that widespread access to personal information belongs to customers present numerous challenges such as vulnerability to fraud, privacy invasion, spamming, and highly targeted and invasive marketing communications that have become a significant nuisance to people daily lives. A primary point of interest is understanding how data collection and analytics have evolved more rapidly than marketing academic scholarship. Accordingly, customers have shifted their interest on whether they would want their information accessed by marketers and other interested parties to their reaction to the violation of data privacy by the various organizations (Martin and Murphy 2017). Businesses should be vigilant of the implication that data collection and marketing could have on consumer attitude. Regardless of the advantages that data analytics offers to businesses in designing their marketing campaigns, it would also be crucial to assess the possible harm the approach could have customer satisfaction and brand equity. Organizations such as Facebook and Google have already experienced some negative implications of data privacy violations. Most of their customers operate cautiously on their sites and gadgets; however, users may lack an alternative given their monopolistic operations in their sectors. If the customers had an option, they would have already left the organizations. Smaller firms do not enjoy the luxury.
Research Question
Do privacy concerns among customers pose a threat to the application of internet market, given that data collection is an integral operation in the practice?
Literature Review
Technology and Privacy
As people become aware of how the internet work, they relationship between technology and data privacy is becoming more evident. Christiansen (2011) reports that people have become concerned about who is harvesting their data and their children's, on the internet. It is unfortunate that one can tell who and how much personal data is being collected, and its use. Despite having numerous positive qualities, technology has enabled third parties access some of the most intimate details without consent. Initially, people were not concerned of the matter since they did not consider it an important aspect of their lives. However, due to growing incidents of targeting marketing, spamming, and inappropriately obtrusive personal selling, consumers are becoming more concerned of the dangers that technology pose on their privacy (Gimpel et al. 2018). Nowadays, some people have claimed that their conversations were recorded and used for target marketing, yet they were unaware of how and when the recording took place. It has become common for a person to talk about a product, open their social media, and find an advert that recommends that they buy a certain brand (Ferrell, 2017). Such incidences have resulted in concerns about the necessity of technology and its downside.
Personal Information Demand in Marketing
Personal information is significantly valuable to markets since it allows them to design target advertisements (Christiansen 2011). The approach is more effective and less expensive than traditional internet marketing, whereby information was disseminated randomly to the target audience. For instance, companies selling pregnancy products used to target all women in a particular age bracket; however, access to personal information has enabled marketers to design adverts that specifically target expectant mothers. Christiansen (2011) claims that data concerning income, demographics, interests, and habits is a gold mine to companies eager to sell their products and services. Therefore, the internet has become an important source of information using technologies such as cookies, geolocation, and algorithms designed to analyze users’ data (Palos-Sanchez, Saura, and Martin-Velicia 2019). Companies can now generate automatic and real-time advertisements to target an individual. With access to personal information, marketers cannot accurately identify potential customers on the internet.
Collection and Usage of Personal Data
To conduct efficient internet marketing campaigns, companies must collect, retain, and analyze their users' information. The collection of data on online platforms can take many forms. For instance, some websites are dedicated to gathering users’ information by intentionally tracking them on the internet, enabling them to build a profile, which they later sell to other firms (Ferrell, 2011). On the other hand, some companies conduct their data collection independently. For example, Facebook can target its customers with adverts based on their conversations on their timeline. According to Ferrell (2011), marketing websites collect personal data, anonymize it, and aggregate it before selling to a third party; collect personal information, store the information within the firm and requires to advertise to specify which traits there are targeting; or gather personal information with the intent of selling the details to a third party. The first approach cannot be considered a violation of privacy, but the other two are. Personal data provide a more specific approach to targeting an individual, making it more valuable to the marketers.
Type of Data Sharing in Internet Marketing
Marketing companies used various approaches to collect data. Schneider et al. (2019) report that companies could use voluntary sharing of data by adults, involuntary disclosure by adults, or sharing by children. Due to some people being ignorant, voluntary sharing of information could occur. In other situations, volun...