Marketing Ethics Metadata Everyone generates metadata as they use technologies s

Question

Marketing Ethics Metadata Everyone generates metadata as they use technologies such as computers and mobile devices to search, post, Tweet, play, text, and talk. What many people don't realize, however, is that this treasure trove of date, time, and location information can be used to identify them without their knowledge. For example, in analyzing more than a million anonymous credit card transactions, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were able to link 90 percent of the transactions to specific users with just four additional bits of metadata, such as user locations based on apps such as Foursquare, the timing of an activity such as a Tweet on Twitter, or playing a mobile game. Since there are more mobile devices than there are people in the United States and 60 percent of purchases are made with a credit card, marketing research firms are gobbling up all sorts of metadata that will let them tie a majority of purchase transactions to specific individuals. 4-11. Describe at least four applications you use that provide location, time, and date information that can be tied to your identity. (AACSB Communication; Reflective Thinking) -12. Debate whether it is ethical for marketers to use metadata to link individual consumers with specific credit card transactions. (AACSB: Communication; Ethical Reasoning

Explanation / Answer

1. Google, Facebook, Maps, Zomato

2. It is not ethical to specifically link individual with specific credit card transaction since had the customesr known this, they wouldn't have approved of it. It is a serious breach of privacy. Analyzing data a aggregate level in summarized form to study trends is fine. But deciphering specific individuals information is unethical as its creation may be put at wrong use and put the individual at risk

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse M
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.