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Get to know Stacey, the savvy single
Stacey Vanek Smith thinking about shoes.
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TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: Somewhere in the back of our minds, we all probably know that companies are keeping track of us. They want to know who we are, what we're interested in, they want to know what we buy -- and how all that affects what we're likely to buy in the future. It's called data mining. Best estimates are it's a $100 billion a year business in this country.
Yesterday, Marketplace's Stacey Vanek Smith told us how marketers are using our data to get better at selling things to us. Today, some personal examples.
Stacey Vanek Smith: Data compilers have been gathering information on me: Where I live and what I buy since I left for college.
Peter Harvey is the CEO of data mining company, Intellidyn. He gives me the big picture.
Peter Harvey: So now, we've got Stacey at Apt C on this street, in LA. It has your date of birth as December 1, 1976.
December 26, but OK...
Harvey: You're a frequent Internet user, cellular customer and long distance user. And it says you are an active credit card user.
Using that and my credit information, data miners slot me into one of 70 lifestyle categories, or clusters.
Harvey: It put you in cluster number 26.
Which is...
Harvey: Savvy singles. Savvy single households are well-educated and enjoy upper-middle income and live in multi-family dwelling units.
We're also workaholics, environmental activists, travelers and mountain climbers, and we spend a lot of our money on fixing up our homes. Companies have been using my savvy singlehood as a way to sell me things for years. That might explain why I get so many Pottery Barn catalogs and promotions for Las Vegas getaways. I'm not actually that into Vegas -- and that can be the problem with those broad categories. But things are getting a lot more personal. Because every time I look something up on my phone, send an e-mail or use my credit card, I'm leaving a trail of digital bread crumbs.
Robert Grossman: I know a fair amount about you now.
That's Robert Grossman, head of the National Center for Data Mining at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He mined my information from Google and Facebook.
Grossman: I know your hometown, which is Boise, Idaho. I know where you work, you work pretty hard, but in the evening you would watch TV shows like "Glee," look at travel locations. You spent a lot of time looking at women's shoes and cosmetics...
I do like shoes and cosmetics. Grossman says marketers could use that information to send me ads for sandals and lip gloss after I got home from work and before I settle into "Glee."
Grossman: I could see that you're interested in doing a trip to Berkeley, San Francisco.
Actually, I was in Berkeley. And Grossman noticed some differences in my behavior when I was there.
Grossman: Los Angeles, you were interested in everything from museums to where to eat breakfast to where to get drinks. In Berkeley, you're interested in cakes, bars and wine restaurants.
So in LA, I'm interested in where to eat and where to get cocktails. And in Berkeley, I'm interested in where to eat and where to get wine. Can I just say, I don't drink that much? But, when I was in Berkeley, for work, I did look up wine bars. And Grossman says, the next time I'm there, I might get a text message from a wine bar near my hotel. So that's a little scary, and that's just Google.
Then we got to Facebook. Where marketers can find out information about the music and books I like, my real birthday, my relationship status, see pictures of what I did last weekend, get a heads up on what I'm planning to this weekend. And see who my friends are, which Grossman says is marketing gold.
Grossman: The likes of friends is one of the most predictive variables of your own likes.
So they know where I live, what I buy, my nutritional habits, what I watch and who my friends are. What are they going to do with all of it? Grossman says, they're going to try to sell me stuff. Stuff that I'll probably want.
Grossman: I think this is just going to make targeting more relevant. From that viewpoint, I think this is very, very good. So I'd offer you women's shoes, cosmetics, travel and TV shows.
Can I just say that I'm not that into shoes? Anyway, Grossman points out that every day I trade my data for things I want. I let Amazon store my credit card information, because it's convenient, I take online surveys to get discounts, and, for no reason at all, I tell my 300 Facebook friends that I saw "Twilight" and liked it. But I am not just the sum of my data parts...
Grossman: This is a very small portion of your life, it's just the part that can be monetized.
Because there is a lot more to me than shoe shopping and bar hopping. I did my senior thesis on Beckett!
In Los Angeles, I'm Stacey Vanek Smith for Marketplace.
Kai Ryssdal: Are you a savvy single? Or maybe a platinum oldie or a shooting star? Stacey talks more about the socioeconomic clusters and the company that developed them. Check it out. It's at Marketplace.org.
The article is about data mining companies that collect, organize, and use/sell information about individuals. I think a lot of people (me, my friends) inferred, incorrectly, that the article is saying Google is one of them. After all, we all know that Google sees individuals' Google searches and, with the Google Toolbar and the Google Chrome browser, sees all of their non-search web browsing, plus any information an individual might type into an online form. Saving and selling this personal behavior information might be a logical next step for Google, but that’s not what is being talked about. The story leaves a lot of room for concluding that Mr. Grossman obtained Stacey’s personal information from some kind of Google-supplied database that he has access to. It should be made clear that he [apparently] just Googled her name and read the resulting bios, interviews, resumes, and other references about her that have been posted online over the years, by herself and by others. Most of the public don’t have that kind of extensive documentation already published about them and the information harvest for most of us will be sparse or non-existent. Bottom line: I want to make it clear, even if the author did not, that the author is not saying Google is a data mining company that sells personal information. [I do not work for or represent Google but I am an Internet professional involved in monitoring internet activity.]
When noticing the mistakes in the data, and the broad, blunt conclusions drawn from the data, remember this: the American Government hunts terrorists, and future bombers, via these data banks, looking for "possible" characteristics.
Feel any safer?
Great story but just FYI. Dr. Grossman is the Head of the National Center for Data Mining that is based at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).
http://www.ncdm.uic.edu/
Stacey & Kai: Keep up the good reporting. In the spirit of the late Mr. Daniel Schorr, aim for accuracy, honesty, and speaking truth to power. In doing so, no one will be able to question your motives, ethics, or effectively dilute your message.
Just as Ms. Vanek Smith protests that she doesn't drink that much or shop for shoes incessantly, data mining is still a blunt instrument. Even with advances in predictive analytics, the promise of "offers you are likely to welcome" is still ahead of delivery, as was the targeting with this offer:
http://www.brandculture.com/blog/2009/06/is-first-premier-bank-platinum-...
But as Beckett said, "Don't wait to be hunted to hide, that's always been my motto."
Data mining makes the marketplace more efficient. If I want to advertise, I want the information to go to people who are interested in my wares. Similarly, if I'm going to receive ads (which is how these free sites stay in business), at least they have some relevance to my life (though I have yet to receive any unsolicited llama-related ads). And Firefox's Adblock Plus works really well anyway.
"It's just the part [of your life] that can be monetized" is patently false. The knowledge that you did your thesis on Beckett could be used to sell you books on other French playwrights, for instance. It's just the part of your life that these companies have figured out how to cheaply monetize so far, which is something entirely different.
I have to say that there's one demographic they seem completely blind to: those to hate advertising with a passion that borders on psychotic. I recycle flyers before they get in the door and abandon companies I've dealt with for decades because of too many unsolicited ads. Why is it so difficult for them to believe that I'm faithful to those who don't bother me?
