A Strategy at Your Convenience

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you and your traditional order. It is up to you to decide if you want to try something new or not. Either way, the server is just someone who is familiar with you and your past choices. Marketers are doing the same thing. When they figure out what your usual purchases are, they use that data to show customers what they want to see. “We call it the ‘guest portrait,’ the more I know about someone, the better I can guess their [purchases]” (190). It is a way to deliver relevance for the customer because it helps them find what exactly they need and on top of that, it saves time. If consumers looked at data collecting as a business strategy and not an invasion of privacy, it can alter one’s perception of the whole controversy. After all, there is so much data compiled since there are numerous amounts of people who buy from large businesses. Corporations are not looking at the details of everyone’s lives; they are looking at their shopping purchases.

It is ethical for companies to collect data about a person’s shopping habits without consent, but only to a certain extent. The boundaries in data collecting become unethical when the customer feels uncomfortable. Consumers were concerned with data collecting to be an invasion of privacy. For example, Charles Duhigg explained in The Power of Habit that a long time ago, Target gathered data on women who bought pregnancy items. Target would send coupons for pregnancy products to the women who previously purchased them, only to find out that they did not have a positive reaction to those coupons (209). Naturally, there are women who would much rather prefer to keep their pregnancy a secret for personal reasons. If these women receive coupons for pregnancy products, of course they would assume that Target knows way more than they should. This is why data collecting should be used responsibly. Target took full responsibility in fixing this problem by using the “sandwich” method. Since our brains are designed to follow a habit of familiarity, Target’s technique of “sandwiching” unfamiliar items with familiar items made advertisements appear more anonymous, casual and most importantly, comfortable. This is in way, gave ease to their paranoia of privacy invasion. Corporations should focus on the bigger picture when it comes to their data and not necessarily the small details. They should consider two things: the customer’s product selection as well as their way of living in order to keep the corporation in business and retain customer satisfaction.

Since data collecting is a regular maneuver for corporate businesses, it shouldn’t be shocking to know that they adjust and alter advertisements depending on the data they find. Data is a necessity and it comes hand in hand with business. The information that companies discover helps improve the industry and in addition, lends a helping hand to the consumers. Customers should try looking at data gathering as a means of dialogue with the industry. Businesses use the data strategically and never for intrusion of the consumer. If buyers truly feel that there is an invasion of privacy, the government should establish guidelines that help keep data collecting fixed and defined. Otherwise, companies are not hurting anyone with the data they gather in their