Stance on B2B Digital Ethics

I have been growing increasingly concerned about digital media privacy policy practices surfacing in the B2B media industry. I am not sure if reasonable digital ethics are being violated due to a lack of thought about strategic audience care or due to economic pressures caused by the recession. Or a combination of these two factors.

It is my stance, and the position of Putman Media, that a typical visitor to our websites, a typical e-newsletter subscriber or a typical member of our digital communities do not think a great deal about the software and other mechanisms most all publishers now have to track audience behavior and activities.

We do know that our web site visitors want access to meaningful and quality information and to explore our sites at their leisure.

Of course, as marketers we all study to learn tricks and tips to increase response rates and other desired behaviors. However, I strongly believe in transparency on the internet.

When a website visitor fills out a registration form to access a piece of content, or to attend a web event I believe that it is well understood that contact information will be shared with the sponsor. It is a buy/sell relationship. I will "sell" you my contact information in order to "buy" the content you are offering.

An individual, in my view, does not expect their full contact information to be shared as a result of clicking on an ad or an article link. In short, a click is not a lead and no publisher has the right to reveal the full identity and contact information of an audience member as a result of just a casual click. A click is just a click--an indication of some level of interest.

Publishers who release click activity as sales leads concern me greatly for a couple of reasons. First, audience members will catch onto this practice, not understand or care which publishers are doing this and which publishers are not. Industry members will simply lessen their participation on industry web sites--this is bad for all of us.

The second source of concern is that plenty of advertisers do not understand where these "leads" are coming from. All they know is that they have new leads and who would not be happy with that? Advertisers do not understand that they are putting information into their sales pipeline that was acquired in a shady fashion. When advertisers understand this dynamic further they will either retract from their marketing activities with industry sites, or encourage publishers to further escalate these unethical practices. Either option is destructive from my standpoint.

PharmaManufacturing.com and PharmaQbD.com have become more vocal about our stance on digital privacy practices. If you would like to review our formal privacy policies contructed with the aid of Putman Media's lawyers, you can find those statements on our websites. Or, our newly released Digital Pledge outlines our position in plain English.