Family Tech Blog

Tag: marketing

  • Instagram is Adding Useless Age Verification to Comply with Child Privacy Laws

    Instagram is Adding Useless Age Verification to Comply with Child Privacy Laws

    Users on most social media platforms are supposed to be 13 years old or older. Some apps have had a form of age verification available for a long time. This allowed them to collect data on all of their users without failing to comply with child privacy laws since you can’t have an account if you’re 12 or younger. They then, as much discussed on this blog and elsewhere, sell that data to advertisers or use it to sell targeted advertising on their own platform. Instagram hasn’t had age verification since it started. That is changing as of this week.

    You may have already seen your birthday show up on your profile in the Instagram app. Don’t worry, that information isn’t public, only you can see it. All users will have their birthday information on their profile as of this week. If the birth year used to create your profile shows that you are under the age of 13, your account will be suspended. When setting up a new Instagram account, the app will now ask for you to put in your birth date.

    “Asking for this information will help prevent underage people from joining Instagram, help us keep young people safer and enable more age-appropriate experiences overall,” the company wrote. “In the coming months, we will use the birthday information you share with us to create more tailored experiences, such as education around account controls and recommended privacy settings for young people.”

    Asking for users ages has already been a part of major social media apps like Snapchat but Instagram hadn’t added it to their sign up process yet. TikTok added age verification after being fined nearly 6 million dollars by the Federal Trade Commission. The problem with these age verification practices is that they are fully reliant on users being honest about their age. All you have to do is a little bit of math to determine when you have to have been born to be over 12 years old. When you enter your new determined birth-date you would be allowed into the app just like anyone else. Parents have been known to lie about their kids ages to allow them to have social media accounts, this is allowed by COPPA as it counts as parent permission. The problem is that developers of these apps can’t tell the difference between a parent making an an account for their child or the kid making their own and lying about their age.

    What Parents Should Know

    Age verifications on social media apps are a hand wave towards regulations that depend solely on users to take the rules into account when using the apps. This means that they aren’t concerned with the safety of users as much as their own ability to skirt around fines and other regulations from the Federal Trade Commission. It is very obvious that these apps are meant to be open and as public as possible. The want as many users as they can get because they aren’t social media companies, these are advertising companies. They sell ads, plain and simple. When you sign up to use social media you are signing up to be advertised to specifically and aggressively. When we sign our kids up and lie about their age we are telling these companies to treat them just like any other consumer.

    If you are honest with yourself, the reason you’re allowing your young kids to use social media is pretty weak. Because their friends have it? Because a teacher says that’s how they contact students? There are ways around any of the reasons you think lead to your hands being tied. All it takes is your own knowledge of what being on these social media apps means for your kids and then a little bit of confidence to just say no. Stand up to your kid, you are the parent after all, or stand up to that teacher or coach. Ask them why they want to contact your 12 year old on social media anyway, does that sound appropriate to you? I submit that in nearly any other context it would not be acceptable.

    You are the first line of defense. Advertising and data collection is the main issue that the government leans on when saying they are trying to protect children online. There are, however, so many other issues to be concerned with. Pornography is rampant on apps like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. You se report after report of young people discussing suicide, mental health problems, and eating disorders on these apps. This information is just sitting there for our children to see. When you give in and allow them to use social media at an early age simply because you think it’s no big deal, or you trust your child, you are allowing things into their minds that cannot be unseen. You’re giving them access to a world that cannot be left behind. Once you know about or begin to contemplate these things, they are permanently a part of your psyche. We must do better. We have to be smarter about our children’s access apps with user generated content. Whether it be games, social media, or any other software. We cannot trust software companies to do the right thing. They are looking after their bottom line first. It is up to us to protect our children. Not the government, not app developers, not the schools, or even police departments and social workers. It is up to you, mom, dad, aunt uncle, grandma, and grandpa. Only you.

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  • CES 2018: Here’s What Marketing Researchers are Saying About Your Teenagers

    CES 2018: Here’s What Marketing Researchers are Saying About Your Teenagers

    Karen Rampacher and Kathy Sheehan from the market and user experience research firm GfK spoke about the changing culture of one of the newest most powerful buying groups. This group is teens and young adults ages 15-24 and they’re calling them Generation NOW. GfK studies the trends of buyers of all ages but they’ve been doing it so long that they can compare different age groups from different eras and track the differences. Here is what they’re saying about your older teens.

    Who is GenNow?

    GenNow is a major market for businesses and advertisers with $830 billion spent by them or on them. They are digital from birth (digital natives) and don’t have to spend much time getting to know devices and screens. Interestingly they don’t define themselves by their ability to use tech but feel as if it’s something everyone can do now, no big deal. In fact, they don’t really worry too much about how they define themselves at all. The research has shown that they aren’t concerned as much about “standing out” as they are being true to their own identity. Identity brings up a whole new set of issues for marketers, who consider the self-identification of the Now Generation to be a puzzle that they have to solve. This age group’s interest in social justice and equality surpasses any generation before them and they are content to just let people be who they have decided they want to be. They are also less likely to reach the traditional “adulthood milestones” as early as their predecessors. Things, like getting married, having children, moving away from home, and starting a lifelong career, aren’t less important but have been placed on the backburner for most of this group.

    GenNow and Advertising

    The question of for the meeting I attended was: “How do you market to a group like Generation Now?” The answers may surprise you. First of all the data suggests that, while this younger generation is most likely to adopt new tech, they’re more concerned about their privacy and security than generations before them. They know what data is being collected, who is collecting it, and what it’s being used for. Sometimes they’re ok with it and sometimes they aren’t. A recent mistake by Netflix on Twitter shows that this generation isn’t going to ignore an inappropriate use of their data. This generation understands artificial intelligence to some degree and they aren’t afraid of it. They are, however, smart enough to disapprove of a misuse of their own info and invasion of their privacy.

    More interesting data suggested that some in this group may never enter a retail store. They purchase things online and trust user/peer reviews to help them determine what they’d like to buy. They value convenience and there’s nothing less convenient than having to go to a store to buy a pair of pants.

    As far as how they consume media, things are changing but not in the ways many have expected. Yes, more kids are viewing streaming media but they haven’t necessarily lost interest in the traditional TV. 85% of Gen Now polled admitted that watching TV makes them happy. They usually define TV, however, as anything you watch on a television. Many even label watching content on any device as TV. Streaming, DVD/BluRay movies, and gaming all fall into the “TV” category for most of the Gen Nowers polled by GfK.

    The amount of content watched was no surprise with an average of 29 hours per week being consumed. More than three-quarters of those polled admitted to binge-watching their favorite shows. (Binge watching is defined as watching three or more episodes of a show in one sitting.) Most of them are watching content on “ad-free environments.” Netflix, Hulu, Youtube Red, and other paid streaming services keep them from having to watch commercials.

    Media companies have answered with short “six-second” adverts that even run alongside live events like sports games and concerts. Product integration or product placement has also become a very important thing for advertisers. Think, Eggo waffles in Stranger Things. Finally, marketers are having to be more careful about how they use the data they collect from this generation’s online and social media activity. They have to prove that they’re not being “creepy” and that the information is being used to bring value and not inconvenience.

    What Parents Should Know

    Obviously, all of the information in this post falls into the category of things parents should know. To summarize, Generation Now is bringing some interesting challenges for marketers and corporations as well as for parents. Moms and dads should take heed of some of the trends this research has found. Use this information to help you build your strategy for internet safety, security, and health.

    As for advertising you’ve probably already noticed short social media videos and posts being used to promote various products. You’ll also see social media influencers being used more and more by companies to review and sponsor their offerings. Your child’s favorite YouTuber or Instagram influencer will be trying out products on their channels and accounts in no time.

    The advertising world is always working as hard as they can to reach our kids with their message. It is important for us as parents to understand the message we want to convey to our kids and retrofit the message that the media is telling them to fit our standards. That’s why this blog is here, to teach you how to do exactly that.

  • Disney Being Sued for “Spying on Children”

    Disney Being Sued for “Spying on Children”

    Disney is in the news again and this time it’s for spying. Apparently, over 40 of the smartphone/tablet games released by Disney have ad tracking built in. That is usually not a surprise when you’re using an app but when the apps are intended for children it changes the game completely. The Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act puts certain limits on what a website or app are allowed to do with information collected from individuals under 13 years of age. Using their information for ad tracking isn’t allowed under COPPA guidelines and a resident of California is taking the company to court because of this policy.

    AvengersNet, Beauty and the Beast, Cars Lightning League, Club Penguin Island, Disney Gif, Frozen Free Fall, and many more apps have all been discovered to be collecting data entered by the children using the apps so that Disney can sell it to advertisers. This information is then used to easily target children with these advertiser’s marketing campaigns. Information such as geolocation, age, web history, email address, and full name are collected in many of these games and are quite valuable to marketing companies. Disney can also use this information to better target the advertising built into their own apps.

    Disney has paid fines for misuse of information before. In 2011, Playcom, a Disney subsidiary paid 3 million in fines for collecting email addresses, full names, and other information from minors.  There’s obviously money to be made from collecting personal information. The question is how can we keep this from happening to our kids?

    What Parents Should Know

    This is why so many apps are free. You’re not paying with money but you’re paying with information. When you or your kids use an app, you should always assume your information is being collected. Sites and apps save passwords, email addresses, and usernames to use on their site but they don’t have to just store that information. They can use that info to make more money as well. There is no way to avoid having the information you enter into apps, software, and websites collected for purposes outside of your control. The key is to control what information you put into those apps.

    There are browsers and plugins that will help you avoid ad tracking. You can search with DuckDuckGo instead of Google, for instance. You can install the AdBlocker extension for Google Chrome to keep some sites from taking your information. The problem is that many of these sites know that blockers are in effect and won’t release all of the features of their site until you disable them. Apps come with tracking built in so there isn’t really any way to avoid letting them take your information. My advice is to only enter information that you would be willing to make public. If you wouldn’t put it on an advertising survey for some company then you shouldn’t enter it into their site or app either.

    As for your children, you have to take the same precautions as you would yourself. In fact, consider being even more strict with the information you enter into the apps your children use. Don’t let them use their real full name or their social media account usernames. Don’t allow them to enter their email address or any contact information. You should enter whatever info you would for yourself and then allow them to use the app. I have a “family” email address that I use for apps or software that want an email address from my kids. My children don’t even know the address or login information, it’s strictly to use for logging in to a couple of the educational or silly game apps they like to use. These are a few of the things you can do to protect your kids from being tracked for advertising. It’s important that they understand that whatever information they enter online will immediately be outside of their control. Teach them to keep private things private. This will protect them from so much more than just advertising.

     

     

  • You Can Now See What Advertising Data Twitter Has on You

    You Can Now See What Advertising Data Twitter Has on You

    A new update today from Twitter allows users to look at the information that’s been gathered about them by Twitter and by “partner” advertisers. Not only can you view this information but you can edit it as well. If you don’t like a category you’ve been placed in, you can simply uncheck that option and opt out of the advertising for that topic. I took it for a spin and was surprised at a few of the assumptions that were made.

    First of all, I was on the list for pretty much every type of food. Packaged food, fresh food, deli meats, non-dairy milk, and the list goes on and on. Apparently I’m an eater. I was also labeled the mother of 3+ children. It’s half right. I’m the FATHER of four kids. Obviously I am being targeted for minivans and pick up trucks and family vacation packages. It was even pretty spot on with my annual income. Kind of crazy, really.

    Here’s how you can check out your Twitter ad data for yourself:

    What Parents Should Know

    It’s pretty safe to assume that if Twitter has this information about you then your other social media platforms have the same information or even more. This info can be helpful to us because it helps connect us with the products we want or need. It can be troublesome, though, to think about all of the data that’s been gathered about us and especially our kids. I recommend you use this new feature as a tool. If you have a Twitter account then use the steps above to go check out your ad data and learn about what you reveal about yourself with your online behavior. Then, talk to your kids about what you’ve found. If your kids have a Twitter account then you should have them go take a look at their information as well. Then have a conversation with them about how they represent themselves online and what this date means in real life. Here are a few talking points.

    1. Advertisers track information from all of your internet activity. Not just what you post on social media.
    2. When you click “I Accept” on any Terms and Agreements for a website or social service you’re agreeing to allow them to have this advertising information.
    3. Since this advertising info is being collected you should keep that in mind while you surf the internet. Remembering that info is being saved could help you think twice about unhealthy internet habits.

    Using a tool as vast as the internet has its tradeoffs. You’re going to have to give a little in order to get the benefits that the world wide web has to offer. In this case, twitter is allowing you to see a bit of what you’re paying. Thankfully, they’ve also given you a bit of control. Being able to turn off advertising options for different topics is a cool feature that I hope will show up on more social media services. In the mean time, remember to keep talking to your kids about how they use the internet and be sure to be a good example yourself.

  • Interactive Advertising Coming to Snapchat

    Interactive Advertising Coming to Snapchat

    I’ve heard marketers say that it is their job to ruin everything. Well, the cameras and filters built into our favorite social media platforms are proving that. Today Snapchat announced they’re launching advertiser access to their Geo filters and camera “lenses.” This means that you can use the augmented reality settings to not just make yourself look like a puppy but also to advertise for your favorite restaurant, the latest movie coming out, or a special event.

    A few weeks ago Facebook announced that they would be opening up the lenses to more developers. This will also increase advertiser use of these products. So now Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook will all be serving up interactive advertising to our kids.


    What Parents Should Know

    These updates are just one more way that advertising can get to our kids. We know that marketers are only after our money, that’s no surprise and should be expected. However, we have to know our kids and decide if we are OK with them being advertised to in this way.

    My advice is that parents take a look at these Geo filters and lenses and see what they could potential be advertising to your kids. Again, Snapchat is on our uninstall list and advertising is the main reason. Today’s news only strengthens that position.

  • Advertising on Snapchat Gets Creepy 

    Advertising on Snapchat Gets Creepy 

    Snapchat’s Always Been About Privacy

    The initial appeal of Snapchat was the disappearing images. The idea was that your conversations with friends stayed between you and them. It was a novel concept in a world where anyone who wants can comment on your post on Facebook or Retweet you on Twitter. SNAP inc., the company that now develops Snapchat even let the privacy theme stay in the way they allowed advertisers to use their site. Last fall a feature allowed business accounts to import their email and phone contacts to target current customers with advertising but that meant the companies were using information that already belonged to them.

    The new announcement about advertising  means that marketers can use data from a third party data collection agency to target their audience based on what they do outside of snapchat. You know the feeling when you follow a whim and lookup the entire collectors set of Star Trek The Next Generation on Amazon and then see the ads for Star Trek pages on facebook the next day? Well, now the same icky feeling is available on Snapchat.

    The silver lining here is that you can opt out of targeted advertising on your accounts page. Snapchat has yet to release an in-app announcement notifying users of the addition or the option to toggle it off though.

    Snapchat’s CEO Said Ad Targeting is Creepy

    “I got an ad this morning for something I was thinking about buying yesterday, and it’s really annoying” Spiegel declared. “We care about not being creepy. That’s something that’s really important to us.” – Snap CEO Evan Spiegel

    Snap is a Real Company Now

    In September of 2016, Snapchat changed their company name to SNAP Inc. This led to some changes in how they did business, including adding hardware (Spectacles) to their repertoire. It has also meant that some of their earning decisions have changed and this step to provide more accurate advertising to companies who use Snapchat for marketing is a perfect example of one of those decisions.

    SNAP isn’t a company that makes an app for High Schoolers anymore. According to the latest reports Snapchat brags 301 million monthly users and are projected to earn over $900 million in advertising in 2017. That’s right, it’s time to take snapchat seriously. The app was largely considered a young person’s trend for a while after it launched but it has quickly become a serious part of the Social Media landscape. In fact ages 18-30 are one of their fastest growing user demographics. When you take all of this into account you realize that this shift in the view of targeted marketing was just a matter of time.

    Marketing Ruins Everything

    Remember when email was simpler? You had one address and just used it to chat with family or to do business. Now you have to have your spam address, newsletter address, family address, signup address, business address, and the email you never check anymore. This all happened because marketers ruin everything.

    Facebook was all about social connection, now you can’t scroll through three posts without a sponsored ad beckoning to you to buy some monthly box of uselessness. Marketers ruined Facebook too. Don’t get me started on YouTube. Sitting through a lame movie trailer before you can watch the cool movie trailer you clicked through to see…it’s all too much.

    It looks like Snapchat is next in line. The inclusion of ad targeting by Snap will allow everything, even some of your offline behavior, to influence the advertising you will see on your Snapchat story.

    What Parents Should Know

    Snapchat makes a lot of appearances on this site because it’s one of the most relevant social media apps out there. I recommend understanding the app and how it works if you’re the parent of a teenager. If they don’t use the app then they want to and you will need to be knowledgeable about it before you make the decision whether or not to let them start Snapping. While sexting is always a concern on any messaging app, the marketing announcement today confirms what I have been saying since this fall. Advertisers want to notify your teenager when they have a new message for them and Snapchat just made it even easier for them. 

  • Snapchat’s Search Update Can Connect Your Kid to their Favorite Celebrity Influence

    Snapchat’s Search Update Can Connect Your Kid to their Favorite Celebrity Influence

    Snapchat’s interface has been a topic of conflict for some users of the app. It’s a bit counter-intuitive and there hasn’t been any simple way to find and connect with other users. Discover, Stories, and group chat have been parts of recent updates that seem to be an attempt to attract more users to the app. Their newest update is an attempt to simplify the experience with a search bar.

    The development team has used this update as an opportunity to replace the search bars located at different sections of the app with one centrally located search tool that will search the entire app. Not only will users be able to find their friend’s most recent stories, the group chats and stories they’ve been apart of, and stories related to the same event or location, but they’ll also be able to find users they don’t yet follow and stories from “Discover Media” partners as well. That crazy article they heard their friends talking about is now just a search away, whether they follow the poster or not.

              Also Check Out: Snapchat Spectacles: Now You CAN Document Every Meaningless Second

    The update is starting slow and rolling out to Android users first. It will be available on iOS very soon though. Snapchat’s user-base is growing steadily and the majority of their users (sixty percent) are under 24 years old. While it’s popularity with millennials is growing their teen user numbers aren’t dwindling so your son or daughter are likely to use Snapchat or if they don’t they probably want to.

    What Parents Should Know

     

    Whether or not Snapchat is a no-go for your family is obviously up to you. It’s important, either way, to understand the functions and purpose of the app. The main goal of Snapchat is social connection. That’s all well and good between your kids and their friends, the concern is the access that brands have to the users of the app. Gone are the days when you could go to the bathroom and miss or just sit and ignore a commercial. We are raising our children in a world where the brands they use allow them to become fans and communicate directly to them.

    This new update will make it even easier for your kid or teen to become a follower of their favorite celebrity or product. If you prefer to have some kind of say over what products and famous people are able to share their “message” with your children then you should pay very close attention to Snapchat and apps like it. (Instagram, Musical.ly) On iOS you can use Family Sharing to keep an eye on what your kids are downloading. If you don’t want to or can’t set-up Family Sharing then the old fashion take the phone and give it a look is always a good option as well. Either way, don’t ignore the messages your children are getting through their social media accounts. You may be surprised how different those messages may be than the lessons you try to teach them every day.

  • How Social Media Sites Use Your Photos to Learn About You

    How Social Media Sites Use Your Photos to Learn About You

    A new extension (plugin or addon for a web browser) has just highlighted an issue we all probably won’t be surprised by but have never thought about. Our social media sites are scanning our photos to learn more about us. The extension is called, get ready it’s a mouthful, “Show Facebook Computer Vision Tags Extension” and it displays the detailed tags that Facebook has used to label your photos when you post them to the site. The tag information is built by automatically scanning every image you post and using the information to create trackable details about that image. So, for instance, if you post an image of you and your kids at the zoo it may show tags that say: “3 people, smiling people, animals, nature.”

     

     

    This may seem like no big deal but when you think about just how much information can be obtained from a simple thoughtless upload of a family photo, it can get a bit creepy. Most likely this info is used to help Facebook target you better with those advertisers who pay for the privilege to use the data to identify potential customers. It also is used to help with search results when someone is looking for photos of you or somewhere you’ve been.

    Use this as a tool!

    Oversharing online is more than just annoying. When you post a picture of your food that nobody cares about you are identifying yourself as a consumer who wants to be advertised to about that type of food. When you post that bad blurry picture of your kids in their princess dress, you’re highlighting that you should be targeted with more Disney advertising. Use this extension as a tool to help you learn that lesson, and teach it to your kids.

    This extension can be a pretty cool way to help you and your kids see how much information about you is available when you post online. I always advocate for parents to teach their kids that the internet is a public place. Whatever you post can and will be used against you IRL (in real life) and so you should think about that before you post. This extension may be a great way to drive that advice home with your kids.

    If you want to see for yourself, you can download the chrome extension HERE.