Thursday, 8. July 2010 9:19
From across the Tasman Sea comes word that that Apple is ramping up its targeted advertising platform. This will be the great battleground for the next decade, as the likes of Google, Apple and even supermarkets and airlines with loyalty schemes battle it out for supremacy in the customer profile market. Think what happens every time you use a fuel docket, every time you pay for groceries and leave a footprint with your loyalty card. Make no doubt, Big Brother is watching you.
Apple uses customer profiles to target mobile phone adverts – Business – NZ Herald News.
But is this necessarily a bad thing? I am not convinced it is. For years we have been giving up our most sensitive information to anonymous government and private entities who then decide if we should have security clearances, credit cards, welfare, tax refunds or be pursued for an unpaid parking fine. Citizen tracking has long been an integral part of civilisation, and at times used for bad. However, if used wisely, and if citizens retain control and remain informed of how their data is being used, it could be a tool for enormous good.
And by good I refer to realisation of the dreams of capitalism – the most efficient allocation of limited resources for the good of humanity – driven by needs and wants to provide resources to provide the greatest value. No longer will we be harangued with irrelevant advertising, no longer will companies produce mountains of products to be pushed on to the market often with colossal waste when those products prove to be failure.
Sophisticated customer profiling will democratise capitalism by putting the consumer firmly in control. Companies will move from slow cumbersome push driven to dynamic rapidly responding pull driven production. Businesses that fail to embrace the new consumer driven world will ultimately fail as they will be unable to compete with dynamic responsive businesses. Smaller entrepreneurial companies will be empowered to identify small profitable market niches previously regarded as unprofitable by traditional large push driven businesses. This will lead to a flourishing of diverse markets and a more colourful society to live in contrast to push driven conformity.
Companies will be forced to bow down and serve the consumer and adapt to their ever changing whims and needs to survive. Those that do will be amply rewarded. The consumer will be the winner.
This is a far cry from the bleak dystopian warnings repeated almost daily in the media and films such as Minority Report where the consumer is portrayed in an omniscient automated society intent on entrapping innocent victims in its web of seduction, lies and corruption. This world is technologically possible, George Orwell warned of this. Aldus Huxley, inspired by bold 19th century industrial progress, even espoused it before Hitler popularised industrialised eugenics and Aldus Huxley turned away in horror.
Radio National recently ran an excellent podcast analysing both sides of the story, even interviewing some of those involved in the very act of tracking how we feel.
The dystopian vison would only eventuate if we consciously sought this world and allowed it to be created. I do not believe this is possible. It is possible that the very act of having this discussion averts this possibility just as the penning of George Orwell’s 1984 in 1948 raised awareness sufficiently to prevent his nightmarish vision.
I am more optimistic and foresee a natural evolution toward a consumer centric demand driven capitalist society where consumers, and even the environment, benefit from a more responsive and resource efficient productive society.
As long as our democratic institutions remain strong, and we remain intolerant of corruption in all collective endeavours, the future will remain bright.
