Digital Marketing Ethics

Today, we are taking a little break from recapping the two textbooks we've been covering to shift focus to a hot topic: digital marketing ethics. We'll be looking at the article Codifying the Right of Trustworthy Delegation: A Crucial Empowerment Tool for the Web written by Richard Whitt. The article focuses on the Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching or ACCESS Act of 2019.

In summation, the ACCESS Act would "encourage market-based competition to dominant social media platforms by requiring the largest companies to make user data portable – and their services interoperable – with other platforms, and to allow users to designate a trusted third-party service to manage their privacy and account settings if they so choose" [1].

In simple terms, the ACCESS Act would allow user data to be exchanged between different platforms. This, according to Whitt, would be great for small businesses and startups because they would have access to big data that tech giants guard so much. The other big thing is it would give users the freedom to manage their online data if they want. The latter is where most ethical issues can emerge.

Whitt mentions internet users may choose a third-party agency to manage and regulate their online data. However, will this also be available to the everyday user? If a regular internet user cannot afford such a service, where is the fairness? In the case he or she chooses to manage their own information, we run into issues such as consent fatigue. This is already present, especially when it comes to accepting website cookies. Whitt urges us to find ways to make implementation sustainable for all involved.

References:
[1] Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Encourage Competition in Social Media. (2019, October 22). Mark R. Warner. https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/10/senators-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-encourage-competition-in-social-media

Whitt, R. (2021, October 5). Codifying the Right of Trustworthy Delegation: A Crucial Empowerment Tool for the Web. Mozilla Foundation. https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/codifying-the-right-of-trustworthy-delegation-a-crucial-empowerment-tool-for-the-web/