American Daughter Media Center

Here in the UK, the behavioural targeting company Phorm claims to have partnered with the three major ISPs — BT, Virgin and TalkTalk, who together account for about 70% of the UK Internet Service Provider market -– to install their equipment right inside the ISPs’ server rooms so they can profile all our surfing, and serve us adverts based on what our interests seem to be.

Those of us who find this pretty intrusive, and do not want our privacy compromised in this way, are mounting a highly vocal campaign against Phorm, in which the website BadPhorm is at the forefront. Visit the BadPhorm website here.

As Phorm has millions of dollars, and we don’t even have a fighting fund, you’d think it would be a pretty one-sided fight, but so far we seem to be winning. The battle isn’t over yet, but we have some pretty powerful opinion that Phorm is actually illegal, and certainly none of the above ISPs have yet dared to start their long-threatened, but now long-delayed “trials” of the “service.”

You will find me on BadPhorm, being vocal, as Midnight_Voice. Why the pseudonym? Well, we all pretty much have pseudonyms. Not because we are afraid to stand up and be counted under our real names, in most cases –- some of our identities are hardly secret at all — but just to indicate that our privacy is important to us.

So that’s the sort of people we are. But what sort of people are we up against? Well, here’s a clue. The Washington Post carried this article:

FTC Wants to Know What Big Brother Knows About You
‘Behavioral Targeting’ on Web Is Debated
By Peter Whoriskey | Thursday, May 22, 2008

….”The problem for newspapers is that a story headlined ‘Two Dead in Baghdad’ isn’t very product-friendly,” said Kent Ertugrul, chief executive of Phorm, a behavioral targeting company working with British newspapers. “But if you know who is looking at the page, that’s where the opportunity is.”

Nice man, huh? Just in time for Memorial Day too. But he’s quite right — who would advertise opposite that story, if they knew it was breaking? Morticians? Cemeteries? Ossuaries?

But Kent make no bones about it -– he has the solution -– don’t sell according to WHERE the reader is looking, but sell according to WHO the reader looking IS. And sell based on having tracked his or her Internet usage, so you know what that reader is interested in. Whether or not the article beside it kind of takes the gilt off the gingerbread….

But it got me thinking. How might that play out in real life? With Phorm, or with Nebuad, which is pretty much the same? And would anyone who had a heart really want to do it? Or would they be blinded by those dollar signs? Ugh…

After which the following verse woke me at 3 am, and just demanded to be put on paper. See what you think…

On The Monetization Of Grief

“Two Dead in Baghdad” – Chuck and Earl, both 21
Like most Americans, you look;
The names, the hometowns not familiar, you read on
And Earl we didn’t know
But Chuck! Oh, Chuck, our Charles, our Charlie, oh!

They killed our lovely boy – some roadside bomb
I have his picture here beside me yet
Uniformed and handsome, smiling. Then he went away
Arthur took the photo – ‘camera nut.’ he was
The garage darkroom’s silent now, of course.

The cutting’s in the scrapbook that I made
It’s rather yellowed, rather tattered, now
And so I like to look on Art’s PC; the page comes up as fresh as if today
And nothing changes – headline, story, date
Except The Advert, nestled in beside.

The Advert knows my wants and my desires
It knows me better than I know myself
At first it seemed so active and so bright
Vacations – but Chuck’s furlough never came
And Autos – we’d surprise him with a car. Was not to be, though.

Bridal Dresses – Ellie did stop by
A few times, after Chuck was laid to rest.
She stood so brave, his fiancée, at his memorial.
Now Carl, a farmer’s son, fills all her thoughts
Well, life goes on. I guess so, anyway.

Cameras, of course. Until last Fall, when we lost Art.
A big man once, but lately shrunken in
His heart gave out. Just broken, I suppose.
Did I say ‘we’? Excuse me; habit dies so hard.
There’s just me now. Unless you count The Advert too.

It’s quieter now. Prescription meds are mostly what I need
And those it somehow never gets to show.
But Ice-Cream? Do I really eat that much?
I guess I do; I see I have some now.
There’s little comfort else, God knows.

“Two Dead in Baghdad” – I can read the screen
From here in bed; it’s warm, I’m drowsy now
I saved the meds, so I could take enough
And sitting, with a pillow at my back
Me and The Advert, fading fast to black.

By Midnight_Voice
[This poem is protected by full copyright.]

On The Monetization Of Grief

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