Four Click Freedom

This is a really interesting statement, so I thought I would post about it.  Some years ago I would say I used to use my social security number to sign up for anything.  I mean even at the super market they sometimes wanted it.  I asked my parents at the time what they thought, and it kind of just seemed necessary.  Later on I started to refuse and it turns out they really didn’t need it.  Same with my phone number, I usually have never given that out.  And did people from every corner of the earth know who I was?  I doubt it, it’s really just a reference number.  I’m sure the higher authorities could tap into my file, but I would still say I am pretty private.

Now I am not arguing that I feel free to give away information and that I am not scared that someone will be able to access and use information to stalk me.  Rather I am discussing what privacy is.

Privacy is actually a method of control.  When people built motes around their castles, it wasn’t really to be private, it was to control who could get in.  Thus privacy on the Internet is the ability to control who can see you.

But unlike the mote, these days privacy and control must be a two way street.  But there is no loss here.  Actually providing advertisers with more information allows them to provide you with more information.  And this is not a battle to kill the advertiser, or the Internet, or all those who sell something, rather it is the battle for optimizing mutual interest.  We all lead simple lives and actually think our buying habits are rather simple too.  So why do we need to see all this advertising?  Well the fact is we don’t.  But we do need to see the advertising that is relevant to us, and the only way to do that is to provide information that matters.

I think if I was tracked for one month to see what my buying habits were, thus giving away my privacy and control, the advertising that I received would be far less.  So how many cannibals are going to cross over my mote and climb the walls to get into my castle when all I’ve got inside is my work and my home cooked meal (although they might want to eat that)?

Yes this title is in fact true.  But in reality don’t you always feel the more you give the less you receive?  By this I mean the more you let people know about you the harder it is for them to target you.  You know how hard it is to buy your best friend a birthday gift.  I think this could be true with advertising too.  You can actually develop more control and more privacy by giving away more of yourself.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Privacychoice Stops Advertisers from Profiling You (lifehacker.com)
• Congressman, privacy groups challenge FTC Web-ad policy (news.cnet.com)
• FTC warns of “day of reckoning” for online advertisers (arstechnica.com)

So what you might ask after figuring out what a Clickboard is and what a Clickcard can do.  Where is the money?  You aren’t going to sell anymore Clickboards on Clickboards.net than anyone sells anywhere else.  So where is the money?  Yea advertisers will pay for the statistical information about which Clickboards were activated and general or specific user history, but how much money can that make?  Coupons don’t make that much money!

So here is where you tickle the fancy of the advertiser.  Take a magazine subscription.  That magazine has their name on it right.  Well it also has a bar code that was printed on it, and that bar code also comes with an address.  If this person told Clickboards.net that they were subscribing to this magazine, then all the ads in that magazine could be drawn from their profile.  Then an individualized magazine would be sent to them.  Not one with just a bar code but one with all the ads in it tailored just for them.

What does this mean for the magazine?  In the same place they used to sell one ad, now they sell five or ten.  Ad prices go down and revenue goes up.

Following the news last year that China was number one in terms of Internet users we has now seen in the latest China Internet Network Information Center report that by the end of 2008, the number of Internet users in China had reached 298 million, a year-on-year increase of 41.9%. Now that’s an impressive growth rate and no doubt will have commentators exploring issues like sustainability and possible implications.

Further, the report says that China’s Internet popularity rate reached 22.6%, which exceeded the world’s average rate of 21.9% for the first time. In addition, the number of broadband Internet users in China was 270 million and the number of the national .CN domain names increased to 13.572 million, a year-on-year increase of 50.8%.

http://www.sinotechblog.com.cn/en/2009/01/chinas-growth-in-internet-users-rockets-in-2008/

Anyone with common sense can read through the lines here and see that China is the frontier for Internet advertising.  Roping in these customers and provide the millions upon millions with personalized advertising is on everyone’s agenda.  I think the Clickboard can do this.  Simple steps to a more concentric future no matter how chaotic it is on the surface is the answer.

All products are made in China.  Starting at the source and working out will reach the world.  My plans for the Clickboard are right here in Tianjin.  Simplicity and transparency is the answer, there is no bigger hurdle and yet nothing more accepted.

No one ever wants to leave the site they are looking at and mulling through to stop and visit a site from an advertiser.  Yes, they might actually like what they see, but almost no one leaves where they are to go in search of some coupons or deal.  Why advertisers ever got the power to pay by click  through is beyond me.  This completely wiped away the power of the Internet and it was probably from media agents who knew very little about how the Internet works and advertising tools that were faulty from the beginning.

The solution is to advertise and get a relative response from viewers without disturbing them and taking them away from what they are doing.  How can this be done? With the Clickboard.