Measuring Audience and Privacy

This commentary by the Chief Research Officer of comScore is a good look at the increasing tensions among measuring and targeting consumers and privacy concerns and expectations.

There seems to be a story everyday about desire of advertisers and marketers to know as much about the consumer/viewer who is watching/clicking/searching and the actual/potential abuse of personally identifiable information. The definition of what constitutes "personally identifiable information" is under stress and many expect it to expand as search and measuring technologies become more robust and refined.

At the moment it may seem that governments, legislators and watchdog groups are leading the public on this issue. But if the decisions and questions raised by Facebook recently and errors (however unintended) like those of ATT continue, the public may begin to listen more closely and expect more transparent ways to say "yes" or "no".