Communication Critical Analysis

Communication Critical Analysis

Turow, the author of The aisles have eyes (2017, a part of this book is assigned for November 13) has spent the past twenty years surveying Americans about their attitudes towards privacy. He summarizes some of his central findings on pp. 248-261 (on ICON). If marketers think of you as wary but savvy, other Americans have repeatedly told researchers that they feel helpless online. Some observers have declared the situation to be a “privacy paradox,” highlighting customers’ inconsistent and contradictory impulses when it comes to safeguarding their own private information (158). By the end of this assignment you will be able to tell us how your attitudes to what you have observed compare to other Americans’ attitudes as revealed in survey data. You’ll write up the answers to the questions below into a full paper that answers the following question: In your opinion, do retailers strike the right balance between respecting your privacy and targeting promotions at you? Why or why not? Your answer will be the thesis of your paper.

Description

This assignment asks you to think about your control over your personal information in the digital environment via several related tasks. First, I would like you to visit two store websites. The first one you will have relationship with: you have shopped there before or you are even part of their loyalty program. Pick a product you are interested in and allow the store, if you haven’t yet, to send you notifications. The second website should be entirely new to you and may not even sell products you would currently consider buying (e.g. motorcycles or high-end female jewelry). Spend a few minutes on these sites and see whether, when, how and how often they reach out to you afterwards. If there is time and you are near a physical store of the company you have a relationship with, go into the store with your cell phone (including you wi-fi and Bluetooth) on and find the same item you looked at online. Observe and record whether and how the company reaches out to you after your visit. Take screen captures of the ads/marketing messages you receive, note their frequency and how they arrive (via a text message, embedded in another website etc.). Note whether you logged in via Facebook or other social media – this is NOT required, but keep track of it if you do in case it makes a difference in the messages you receive after your visit.

Analysis

Second, read and analyze the privacy policy of the store you have a relationship with. It’s probably best if you read the privacy policy itself BEFORE you visit the store website and reread the privacy policy afterwards. Based on the privacy policy, briefly summarize the most important aspects of what happens to your personal information when you visit the company’s site or its store. How clearly have they conveyed these pieces of information to you? What, if anything, did they fail to tell you? Based on your observations, was the privacy policy a good guide to what you observed when you went online? Provide evidence for your claims by citing specific parts of the privacy policy. Do the advantages you receive based on the store’s collection of your personal information seem valuable to you?

Interpretation

Third, read Turow’s central findings about more than 15 years’ worth of survey data (pp. 248-261) and place your experience in that context. What kind of a world does Turow think marketers’ practices create and what are the social costs of living in this world? How do your reactions compare to those of Americans from all backgrounds? Cite all the information you are using from the book section by page number. Based on your observations, did the store you know treat you any differently than the store whose site you visited for the first time? To what extent are you satisfied with the way your website handles your information and with the way they communicate their practices to you? Finally, what, if anything, surprised you most when you were working on the assignment?

After all the questions have been answered, you should have a max. 3-page paper ready to be handed in. The paper should be typed, double-spaced, stapled and it should use standard margins as well as a 12-point font comparable to Times New Roman. Decisions about what to include and what to exclude are a crucial part of analysis. You will lose up to 5 points for each page your paper is over the page limit.