Recently, a woman named Janet Vertesi tried to hide the fact that she was pregnant - from the Internet.
Vertesi, an associate professor of Sociology at Princeton University, decided to conduct a personal study into how to hide her pregnancy from companies looking to reach her and her spending money.
Pregnant women are very valuable to marketers. They not only need many items when the baby is in the womb, but also long term care, including diapers, swing sets, cribs, clothing, and more. According to her, the average person's marketing data is worth 10 cents. A pregnant woman's marketing data is worth $1.50. That's a pretty significant difference!!
Her story is one of challenges as well as insight into how much companies truly do track your consumption behavior. She has been able to take away what it takes to avoid being collected and tracked from big data companies.
She first made sure there was no news of the event on social media - a crucial step as many companies use this tool first and foremost. She personally called or emailed the news to friends and family. She even went as far as using only cash when buying baby items, so there was no paper trail on her credit cards.
One of the biggest things she can take away from this was that her activity of dodging advertising and tracking did tend to raise some red flags. Her husband tried to buy $500 worth of Amazon giftcards with cash in order to buy a stroller and the clerk at the Rite Aid pharmacy said that the company had a legal obligation to report excessive transactions to the authorities. Seriously?!
This may lead to a conclusion that we have moved into a time that hiding personal information from companies to avoid targeted advertisements may not be possible anymore. Companies are striving to know more and more about consumers to influence their decision making. While many do not mind targeted or personalized ads, some do, and they may not be comfortable with the amount that big companies know about them.
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