Read and answer the discussion questions.

DISCUSSION CASE: Digital Marketing, Consumer Privacy, and Manipulation igital technology has significantly increased the amount of information that businesses can gather about consumers; the speed at which that information can be collected, analyze and used; and the specificity of both who those consumers are and the details of their behavior and psychology. Digital technologies give marketers the ability to segment markets down to the level of individuals and their web browsing and shopping behavior in real time. This development of digital technologies has also created significant new ethical challenges. Consider the following cases. In 2012, Forbes magazine published a story on how Target analyzes customer data. Forbes reported that by using purchasing history for twenty-five specific products, Target analysts created a "pregnancy prediction" score that would indicate not only if a customer was pregnant but would also provide a strong indication of the due date. Based on that prediction, the store would then send coupons and sales promotions for pregnancy and baby products to customers who scored high on the pregnancy prediction metric. The Forbes story contained an anecdote about a father who first learned about his daughter's pregnancy after complaining to Target about a mailer promoting pregnancy and baby products sent to his teenage daughter. According to the Forbes and baby products were embedded within more generic promotions to disguise the fact what Target knew about the pregnancy. A number of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations provide DNA tracking information so that individuals can learn about their own ancestry. By submitting samples of DNA organizations maintain huge DNA databases, and the business model of the for-profit organizations is built on selling access to this information. In April 2018, police in California announced that they had arrested a man suspected of being the "Golden Gate killer," a serial murderer and rapist suspected of committing more than fifty rapes and a dozen murders in California between 1974 and 1986. Police confirmed that they relied on DNA profiles provided by an ancestry website to solve the thirty-year old case. A distant relative of the accused murderer had used the website and was identified as a match to a DNA sample police had collected from a crime scene. Police acknowledged using an openaccess website to trace their suspect, so they were able to conduct this search of the database without a warrant. Some retail stores use location-based services known as "beacons" to know when particular people enter their store. Beacon technology relies on low-powered Bluetooth signals that can be detected within a few hundred feet. A common use is to install this technology in a company's app that, like most apps, regularly collects browsing and shopping information about the consumer. When that consumer is near the retail store, ads and enticements specifically targeted to that consumer based on past online behavior can be instantly sent to his or her mobile device. This practice has been updated with the use of face recognition software, which allows the store to identify customers as they walk in, trace and record their in-store shopping habits, and immediately send promotion information to their smartphone. The same technology, of course, is also used as part of the store's security system. Major security breaches at both large and small corporations have exposed the personal information of billions of consumers to hackers. Between the years 2013 and 2017 alone, consumer databases at such leading firms as Target, Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase, eBay, Anthem, Equifax, Uber, and Yahoo were hacked, resulting in disclosure of personal information of 3.5 billion consumers. The beach at Target resulted in the loss of credit card and contact information of 110 million customers. Equifax's breach disclosed the Social Security numbers, In 2017, the company announced that the names, addresses, date of birth, e-mail accounts, and passwords for as many as 3 billion customers had been compromised in a security breach. Later analysis pointed to state-supported hackers, likely Russian sponsored, as responsible for the Yahoo attack. Finally, consider the degree to which digital marketing techniques, and the information gained from them, enable those with access to this information to manipulate people. While this question was raised most dramatically after the 2016 U.S. presidential elections when Russian operatives used Facebook and Twitter accounts in an attempt to influence American voters, questions of manipulation by digital means exist for a wide range of marketing activities. Most troubling is the phenomena identified as digital addiction or smartphone addiction. Digital addiction refers to a compulsive use of digital technologies, such as when a person cannot stop glancing at his or her smartphone or checking his or her social media account. Like drug or alcohol addiction, digital addicts not only are obsessive in their reliance on their digital habit but they also experience feelings of depression or anxiety akin to withdrawal symptoms when the technology is removed. The behavioral manifestations of digital addiction are familiar to most of us on a daily basis when we observe people incessantly texting, checking their smartphones, or posting on social media. According to critics, the digital marketing industry intentionally designs online platforms, aps, smartphones, and websites to reinforce this addictive behavior. Using research from psychology and neuroscience, this industry is able to shape, condition, and control human behavior. The sounds of text and e-mail notifications; the timing and scheduling of notifications, posts, pop-ups, and online ads; and the page design itself are part of a strategy to attract and keep people engaged. This is done, in part, by exploiting the anxiety that some people feel when they are not online. A notification sound announcing the arrival of a text or e-mail immediately draws most of us to check our phone. Just as Pavlov's famous dogs salivated in anticipation of a reward, digital users continuously check their phones in anticipation of the next text or tweet. In response to such criticisms, both Google and Apple have introduced technologies that can mitigate the effects of such practices. Google's Android P operating system, introduced in the spring of 2018, will let users set time limits for apps, review the amount of time spent on each app, and create a "Do Not Disturb" mode to silences all notifications. In June 2018, Apple introduced a feature called "Digital Health" on its operating system with similar features aimed at helping users control their own online behavior. 1 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Are you troubled by the fact that so much information about you is available for purchase? Is personal information about you that is collected by businesses a commodity that they should be allowed to sell to others? Why or why not? 2. In the Golden Gate killer case, we recognize that police might be interested in the personal data collected by companies. Obviously, marketing companies also have an interest in such data. Who else might have an interest in gaining access to the personal information collected about you? 3. Do you believe that a business violates a customer's privacy by collecting data on his or her buying habits? His or her Internet search history? Where do you draw a line between what information a business can rightfully know about a customer and what would be an invasion of privacy? 4. Physically following and watching someone repeatedly can be a crime of stalking. Can there be such a thing as digital stalking? Some retailers have begun to use facial recognition software to identify customers when they first walk into a store. To do this, of course, they need access to a digitized picture of you. Where might they get this information? Do you think that it is ethical to use face recognition software to track someone while shopping? 5. Do you believe that people can become addicted to digital technologies? Do you believe that online and digital behavior can be controlled? Marketers have always relied on insights from psychology to influence human behavior. How, if at all, is the use of psychology and neuroscience by digital marketing any different? 6. Do you agree that the more information someone has about you, the better able he or she will to predict your behavior? Do you believe that if he or she is able to predict your behavior, he or she will be able to control your behavior