Unlocking Digital Insights: Cookies, Geolocation, and Behavioral Marketing

1. Social Media. Behavioral Marketing General themes. Cookies. Geolocation. Homework: check out cookies on your computer. Experiment with geolocation.

2. General themes • Reprise: who (what company/organization) providing services? • What / how is revenue stream? • What is the algorithm – what is the algorithm like… • What / where / when is the data? • How personalized is it? • is this a good thing?

3. cookies • Original client / server model did not make permanent changes to client computer • did not create/store/save a new file • More complicated applications, especially commercial applications, required something • Cookies: small files only available to original program (sometimes original site) could access. • User (client) could refuse cookies and erase cookies • browser specific

4. Notice • You are made aware when browser offers to save password or a program offers to save information. • Many / most cookies do not announce themselves! • companies (third party services) are interested in where you have been and what you did. Behavior. • maybe not your name, other personal data

5. Third parties • Consider downloading and installing • http://www.ghostery.com/

6. How to view • Chrome: wrench / Settings / Show advanced settings • under Privacy Content settings • Cookies: all cookies and site data • You do it for Firefox, Safari, IE, Opera, whatever browser you use the most! • Extra credit for the first person who describes how to do this for each of these other browsers.

7. JavaScript cookies • name / value pair • expiration • no time/date, means that it expires when browser is closed. Called a session cookie. • also ways to modify what/who can view the cookie • domain • path

8. Basic JavaScript function setCookie(cname,cval,nd); now = new Date(); expdate = new Date(); cdata = escape(cval); expdate.setDate(now.getDate()+nd); if (nd!=null) { cdata += " ; expires=" exdate.toUTCString(); } document.cookie=cname+cdata;

9. Examples / note • http://faculty.purchase.edu/jeanine.meyer/cookiesimple.html • http://faculty.purchase.edu/jeanine.meyer/cookie.html • http://faculty.purchase.edu/jeanine.meyer/cookienote.doc

10. HTML5 localStorage • Similar but different • http://faculty.purchase.edu/jeanine.meyer/html5/localstoragedate.html

11. Research • Compare cookies, localStorage, Flash cookies, also beacons, other

12. Geolocation • Attempt to locate user / client • Methods include • list of addresses of IP values • triangulation using • WI-FI hubs • Google gathering Street views also determined location of WI-FI hubs including secure/private ones. • cell phone towers • GPS satellites

13. Geolocation, cont. • Requires program to get permission • asynchronous activity • not instant • may fail • not supported by browser • supported but doesn't work this time • supported but may take too long

14. my program • http://faculty.purchase.edu/jeanine.meyer/html5/geolocationlocalstorage.html

15. More on privacy • Cathy Dwyer talk: http://t.co/jQgWjyFX

16. Homework You can work in pairs, if you like. • Check out what cookies are present on your computer. Identify at least 5 cookies from at least 3 different site/companies and determine content. You can check different browsers. • Try the geolocation program with different devices and report on accuracy. Report on other geolocation programs. PLUS • postings, including cookies, geolocation, mathematics behind triangulation