So a new article appears on Behavioural Insider today “Behavioral Targeting Gets Multimodal” looking at one of the companies operating in the space of trying to better ‘understand’ the consumer… hmmm….

Sipping coffee I was, but it wasn’t the caffeine that woke me up when I read a response from MeMedia’s CEO about how to pull all the pieces together.

‘Working with software publishers of downloadable applications… tracking types of applications downloaded and content preferences based on application usages. If someone has downloaded an IM service and chats about golf, the system will look for golf-related ads.’

Wooah, wooah, wooah!!! Let me back-track here; “If someone has downloaded an IM service and chats about golf, the system will look for golf-related ads.” Mr. Patel, if I hapen to be having a personal conversation with my girlfriend and dare to mention the word ’sex’, am I to be innundated with adverts for sex sites?! Now don’t get me wrong, I am all for making life easier and advertising relevant – but there is a limit. I may well be interested in talking about cars, may even talk about Ferarri’s – may even look at their site and dream – but doesn’t mean I am in the market to buy one (yet!) and so would Ferrari really be making an ‘intelligent’ spend on me? I guess if you cross-referenced it with my bank-account, you may be able to deduct that…! All this ‘assuming’ – well there is a line and one which you do not seem to be aware of let alone address. There are somethings that are, well, private – and you or anyone else need to respect the fact that I don’t want to talk about money with anyone but my bank and I close my curtains whilst I am in a state of undress – and that’s ‘my’ choice…