There’s really no end to people’s innovation when it comes to making money on eBay. Remember the $28,000 Virgin Mary sandwich? One auction entrepreneur, though, has figured out the business currency of the day: he’s selling his non-personally identifiable info for marketing. From the ad:

Here’s what you’ll get if you win this auction:

• My past 30 days internet search queries
• My past 90 days web surfing history
• My past 30 days online and offline purchase activity
• My Age, Gender, Ethnicity, Marital status (in case you couldn’t figure it out above), and Geo location (in case you can’t figure it out below)
• The right to target one ad per day to me for 30 days (now that’s what I call opt-in!)
  Ads can be created in any desired format (video, text, graphic, audio, etc.) but must be delivered via email

Behold the true promise of one-to-one marketing.

But wait, there’s more

Not only do I certify that I will watch/read/listen to your ads but I will also provide daily feedback as to whether or not the ad appealed to me and if I’d like additional information about the product or service.

Now there’s some creativity in identifying a market segment! The guy’s got a great sense of humor, too, if you’re a closet Deep Space Nine fan; here’s the pic that came with the auction:

Obviously the ad is pretty tongue-in-cheek, but like all truly good jokes, the reason it works is because it is so firmly rooted in our current business reality.

Yesterday, in a piece called Where were you online? Advertisers know, Michele Gershberg explored the world of behavioral marketing through non-identifiable data.

U.S. marketers will nearly double their spending on such advertising to $1 billion next year from $575 million in 2007, according to research firm eMarketer. By 2011, behavioral targeting will surge to nearly $3.8 billion of online ads.

Industry executives say it’s a boon to the consumer, who in an ideal world will only receive commercial messages that suit them personally, while enjoying online entertainment or information for free.

“As long as I’m seeing relevant advertising and as long as I am receiving free content, I am a pretty happy person,” said Bill Gossman, chief executive of behavioral targeting firm Revenue Science. The company’s clients have included media outlets from Reuters Group Plc to Walt Disney Co.’s ABC News and Gannett Co. Inc.’s USA Today.

To protect individual privacy, U.S. companies who sell such services say they do not link the behavioral data with the actual names and addresses of computer users.

“We have no idea of who that individual is and I don’t want to know,” Gossman said. “What marketers want to know is, what is their intent?”

At the risk of getting overly philosophical (and please tell me if you think I am), I can’t help but reflect on deeper questions as I read these stories: mainly, what constitutes an identity?

If I know your habits, your activities, your purchases, your poker games and porn preferences, does it follow that I know you? Surely you are more than just your name—at what point does your identity become non-identifying?

I wrote a short while back on a somewhat silly suggestion that the Chinese government could find someone based on their age and gender. Yeah, it’s silly all right, but what if someone had your age, gender, location, shoe size, family status, and a full inventory of the contents of your closet? Would you feel they knew you?

Where is the boundary of who you are?

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 10:10 am and is filed under Privacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.