Not Now

“Not Now.”  That was the original headline on my recent iMedia piece, before my editor changed it.

I wanted that headline because there are actually two huge problems with the state of digital ad targeting.  The first is that we’ve gone well past the fail safe line that DoubleClick and other companies stepped over in 2000, as it pertains to data profiling and consumer privacy.  The second is that a lot of it is coming to a head now, while there’s draft legislation on the table concerning digital consumer privacy.  Putting aside the first issue for a second, I can’t fathom why anyone would want to kick up the dust on ad targeting right now.  It could attract the wrong kind of attention and result in the typical ham-handed government regulatory response that we all want to avoid.  The simplest and easiest thing to do would be for the U.S. Government to get rid of the third party cookie.  This would be like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but it’s exactly the type of thing that I’d expect from Congress.

Getting back to the first issue for a moment…  You’re going to be hear