Ghostery Data Reveals Surge in Online Ad Targeting Being Utilised by Presidential Campaigns

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Evidon, the global leader in revealing the invisible web, today announced interim results from its Global Tracker Report (available at http://blog.evidon.com/2012/10/27/the-invisible-vote/). These results focused on an analysis of the tracking elements being utilised by the websites of both presidential candidates, MittRomney.com and BarackObama.com. As was reported in Sunday’s New York Times, The Obama campaign has increased its use of trackers from 50 last May to 76 by the end of September, and the number of trackers being utilised by the Romney campaign surged from 25 to 40.

“Both campaigns need to realise that being on top of which technology partners are appearing on their site, and ensuring clarity into what these partners can and can’t do with the data, is essential.”

“The surge in anonymous profiling and targeting by both candidates may illustrate what online retailers have known for years – that retargeting of consumers online works, when it’s done well,” said Scott Meyer, Founder and CEO of Evidon. “The companies both campaigns work with, for their data gathering and targeting, are among the most respected in our ecosystem, and they seem to be doing this the right way. It will be interesting to hear from them how well they saw this strategy performing down the stretch.”

What Becomes of the Data?

Both campaigns say that none of the data being gathered from their sites will be used after the election – but even without extended use of millions of harvested profiles, the campaigns’ increased use of tracking technology represents a significant windfall for online data collectors and ad targeting companies. Transparency for both the data owners and for all consumers who visit the campaigns’ websites remains paramount no matter the disposition of the data itself.

“Instead of managing their campaign websites as though they were traditional content sites, both campaigns are managing them as though they were sophisticated online commerce sites,” said Andy Kahl, Evidon’s Director of Consumer Products. “Both campaigns need to realise that being on top of which technology partners are appearing on their site, and ensuring clarity into what these partners can and can’t do with the data, is essential.”

About Evidon

Evidon reveals the invisible web.

Its technology gives brands, publishers, networks and other businesses around the world unique insight into the digital ecosystem – including unparalleled intelligence on the marketing technologies that underpin the commercial web – and the power to control their impact on business.

That technology includes Ghostery®, Evidon’s browser tool that reports on data collection across 26 million websites and informs the company’s business control solutions. Evidon also provides market-leading privacy controls for more than $1 billion of display media annually that empower more than 150 million people a day to control how their information is used online.

Companies make smarter decisions, protect their businesses and consumer privacy, and grow revenue as a result. www.evidon.com