Gut feeling

In spite of our previous post about the NHS, this blog is concerned primarily with data in general, and the impact of technology on personal information in particular.So, at the risk of appearing to stray off topic, we’ll start today with Gordon Brown’s plan to liberalise the UK’s rules on organ donation. The prime minister wants everyone in the UK to be automatically included in the organ donor register under a system of “presumed consent”. Anyone who objects to having their kidneys re-used after their death would have to opt out of the system.The thorny issue of organ donation provokes visceral (sorry) reactions in most, if not all, of the population: some see it as inherently selfish not to let others use your lights after you’re dead; others see it as yet another example of the creeping nanny state robbing citizens of jurisdiction over their own bodies.There are, of course, powerful arguments both for and against presumed consent, and it’s beyond the remit of this blog either to defend or denounce Gordon’s plan.But the principle of consent, and specifically the opt-in / opt-out debate, sits at the very heart of the continuing debate about the protection of our personal data, especially on the web.Should services that use our personal data be opt-in or opt-out? Most people would instantly and decisively declare that any Internet service which collects, processes, uses or stores our personal data should naturally be opt-in.We strongly disagree.Regular readers will know that this blog tries to champion people’s right to privacy, whether online of offline, so there might be some who are surprised that we feel so strongly against the opt-in model. After all, shouldn’t we have to give our express permission, based on thorough information, before allowing others access to our private lives?Ah, but indeed; and therein lies the problem.Every time we tick the checkbox accepting terms and conditions – be it for a website, a new online service, or to set up an email account – we are giving our consent to everything in the small print.When was the last time you read through a website’s Ts&Cs? In fact, have you ever done so? Do you know what you consented to when you signed up to watch YouTube or set up a Google Mail account? No, but you checked the box without thinking, just because you were impatient to get on with it.And that’s where the danger of opt-in lies. Irresponsible sites – unlike YouTube and Google Mail – can use the opt-in mechanism to obtain people’s explicit consent for any number of nefarious activities by slipping new services into their terms and conditions, knowing that the vast majority of people will blithely tick the box without reading them.Much better, then, to obtained people’s informed consent before they sign up – let them know exactly what they’re consenting to by having an unavoidable notice, explaining any changes to service, on the log-in page.No reasonable person can argue that it should be easy as possible for people to see what they’re signing up to; yet most campaigners on this issue seem still to be in thrall to the sanctity of opt-in, which makes it so easy for people to bury nasty surprises in the Ts&Cs.This visibility, this informing of stakeholders, is what’s lacking from the prime minister’s plans for presumed consent. While presumed consent is fair to the educated, literate and informed, it ignores the much greater majority of people who are not au courant and thus are in no position to give informed consent to organ donation.

Unique Networking Event-January 2010

The next NFI Networking event will be held at 18.00, Thursday 28th January 2010 atThe Woodstore Bar and Grill1 Carpenters MewsNorth RoadLondonN7 9EFMap and info at http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/pubsandbars/woodstore-bar-and-grill-info-16331.html

New Watchdog Chief Bares His Teeth

So, farewell then Richard Thomas. The outgoing Information Commissioner handed over the baton to Christopher Graham last June, and the new head of the ICO has wasted little time in getting stuck into parliament, the courts and newspapers for failing to stop the flourishing trade in illegally obtained personal and confidential information.The former DG of the Advertising Standards Authority was giving evidence to the Commons media select committee investigating phone-hacking and other unscrupulous press activity. This issue came to a head a couple of years ago with the revelations that the News of the Screw's was tapping Prince William and Harry's mobiles; the fact that it's taken until now to establish an investigation speaks volumes about the procrastination of our pusilanimous parliament.While it comes as no surprise that tabloid journalists resort to questionable - even illegal - activities in their work,what beggars belief is the complete absence of deterrent in the form of proper punishment. Graham raised this in his evidence to the committee, criticising the goverment for failing to introduce jail terms for hackers and other willful violators of the Data Protection Act, and claimed that custodial sentences could end the practice "at a stroke".It's worth noting that Clive Goodman, the Screws' former royal editor, did in fact do four months' bird for hacking the Princes' phones, but Graham pointed out that the NotW case was merely part of a much bigger malaise. Graham said that the ICO had tried to sound the alarm about the scale of the problem as far back as 2006, when it published a report showing that 305 reporters were using private investigators. Unfortunately, said Graham, "...we were let down by the courts, who didn't seem to be interested in levying even the pathetic fines they had at their disposal; we were rather let down by parliament in the end, with no legislation; and we were let down by the newspaper groups, which didn't take it seriously."It's good to see such forthright common sense from the new Information Commissioner - it's a sign that the ICO is fast becoming a Watchdog with real bite. Graham has made a great start, and we will be following his progress with interest.

Pre-roll Continues to Prosper as Companies Catch On

MTV Networks recently declared pre-roll as the ‘most effective and consumer-friendly’ advertising method within today’s entertainment and media industry. Their general belief is that companies should ultimately exploit online advertising or face falling behind their competitors. Jason Witt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MTV's digital advertising unit certainly seems to think so and urges others to follow suit.Pre-roll is an advertising technique that has proved to be worth investing in. Companies that have the capability and readiness to exploit new advertising areas seem to reap bounteous rewards. For example, Southern Comfort, having previously spent $6 million on late-night cable TV and a further $1.5 million on magazines announced a change of direction. It has now increased its online advertising spending by 25 per cent, including on online video advertising on Hulu and other websites of NBC, CBS, Fox and FX. Online video advertising is essentially able to reach a wider range of consumers in a more cost-efficient way. Lena DerOhannessian, Southern Comfort’s U.S. Marketing Director said, ‘As we’ve focused more on 21 to 29 [year olds], TV becomes less and less effective at reaching that audience.’ More and more opportunities are to be found elsewhere, namely online.The online community is continuously expanding with it estimated to grow 85 per cent by 2013. This growth provides the perfect chance to exploit pre-roll to the full. Research shows that out of the 87 per cent of UK Internet users watching online videos, 52 per cent have taken action after seeing a pre-roll ad. Thus far, it appears that short pre-roll ads are the most effective form of online advertising. The web video company, BBE, asserts that pre-roll ads are 8-25 times more effective than other types of online advertising since viewers are more likely to sit through a short ad that is played 10-20 seconds before their desired content. Shorter online advertising, therefore, is able to promote companies in a way that does not ruin viewers’ enjoyment, especially since any pre-roll longer than 20 seconds threatens to send frustrated viewers elsewhere. Compared to TV, where 3 minute long adverts are tolerated by audiences, a pre-roll that lasts even 30 seconds seems like an eternity.Pre-roll essentially enables the relationship between brands and consumers to develop in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Kent J. Krizik, President of NewsProNet, declared that ‘online media publishers and local and national advertisers know there's no better way to reach consumers than through the compelling format of online video’. Moreover, after positive results from MTV’s study of over 50 million video streams across the US, Sharb Farjami, Vice President of Ad Sales within MTV Networks Australia & New Zealand, praised this form of online advertising as an ‘exciting area that is gaining popularity in this marketplace because it delivers rich user interaction’. Online video advertising may in fact help companies stay afloat in the current economic climate. Tod Sacerdoti, Founder-CEO of the online advertising network BrightRoll remarks that general advertising revenues for online video are ‘up 217 per cent between the first and second quarters of this year’. He argues that it will ‘rise 50 per cent to 100 per cent for the entire year based on increased volume, even though prices may continue to fluctuate during a down economy’. Of course, the advertising industry has, on the whole, been in a slump for quite a long time which further emphasises the importance of online video advertising.So, online video advertising is undoubtedly the preferred and wisest advertising method of today.

Samknows Bandwidth Hungry Britain's Real Broadband Speeds

According to a new report published today by regulator, Ofcom, the UK’s broadband speeds are getting faster but not everyone is happy.The report shows that average connection speed across the UK is 4.1Mbps, up from 3.6Mbps in January.A survey running alongside the tests found over a quarter of consumers (26%) said that the speeds they received were not what they expected when they signed up for their broadband service.SamKnows spoke to Anna Bradley, chair of the Communications Consumer Panel, who has been lobbying for the current up-to speed claims to be changed to an average speed claim. “The Ofcom work is incredibly helpful because it exposes just how little the up- to speeds mean and exposes how variable the service level is from one provider to another,” she said. “The fact that they are still advertised with ‘up-to’ speeds is deeply problematic.”Over 60 million separate service performance tests were carried out in over 1600 homes between November 2008 and April 2009.

WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR EMAILS?

You don’t have to be spam to get blocked. One in five legitimate marketing emails fails to get to the receiver’s inbox. That is what Return Path reveals in their new research into European marketers’ knowledge about their own emails. In most cases marketers are ‘emailing in the dark’ not knowing what happens to their sent messages.Two in five interviewed people still think an email gets delivered if it is sent or doesn’t bounce back. But twenty per cent of messages are being blocked or directed to the junk folder, according to Return Path – the company that helps marketers get their emails into the inbox and read. Email is the cheapest way to distribute your messages but it’s got to be done properly. No matter how many hours you spend creating a really great message, the effort is wasted if it doesn’t get delivered and read.Many people think that reaching the inbox is the sole responsibility of Email Service Providers (ESPs). But it is ultimately in the hands of the senders themselves to make sure their messages are read. Demanding all-encompassing deliverability reports from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is an excellent way to find out the destiny of your marketing messages. However, very few people do this at the moment, according to Return Path. This report must contain detailed metrics – the percentage of emails being placed to ‘inbox’, ‘junk’ or ‘missed’. Once you have that knowledge you can act upon it, but Return Path warns not to trust unrealistically high metrics. A delivered email is one that not only was sent and didn’t bounce back, but that actually reached the inbox. So why do some emails get blocked?They either look like spam or are not wanted by the reader. The first one is relatively easy to correct. You might need to change the email’s format and rewrite some of the content. The second one is almost as easy. Readers often mark emails as spam because they don’t want to go through a complicated procedure of unsubscribing. You need to make it easy for people to stop receiving your messages because too many spam complaints will affect your company’s reputation. Putting an ‘unsubscribe’ option at the top of the page should help. To keep your subscribers, try and make sure your emails are relevant and targeted to each individual customer. Special offers personalised with a customer’s name or the like usually work well.If you follow this advice, you stand a much better chance of getting your message to the customer.

ISPs Hit for Six by Sports Fans

As the nation’s sports fans gear up for a packed summer of sport, ISPs are keeping a beady eye on their bandwidth.Not only have online catch-up services such as the Beeb’s iPlayer, Channel 4’s 4oD and Sky’s Sky Player become increasingly popular but watching ‘live’ content is beginning to take off.Many sports fans stuck behind their desks during Wimbledon, The Golf Open Championship and The Ashes are turning to ‘live’ online coverage to get their fix and as a result ISPs are seeing spikes in traffic.Trefor Davies, Timico’s Chief Technology Officer, has provided an interesting graph in his blog about their network traffic during Wimbledon. Take a look at his blog here.Furthermore it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any easier for ISPs with bandwidth sapping high definition (HD) content beginning to rear its head on the ‘net.