• by Jeff Einstein , November 1, 2004

Where was accountability in the recent presidential debates? How could any undecided voter hope to make any sense whatsoever out of the claims, counter claims, and counter counter claims flying back and forth? Of course, you might caution, the debates are all about personality and presentation, not facts, and have little to do with the veracity of what was actually said. Sounds a lot like more advertising and marketing to me.

The non-profit National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and America Online teamed up recently to conduct a study of consumer online safety and security. According to the study, approximately 80 percent of respondent machines were infected with adware and/or spyware, although only 10 percent of respondents knew about it or even knew what spyware and adware programs are and do. Moreover, a full 95 percent of respondents claimed that they never gave permission for any adware or spyware programs to be installed.

More than four out of five households with children had no parental control whatsoever on their home PCs. More than half the respondents had no idea what a firewall is or what it does, although more than 80 percent admitted to keeping sensitive financial and medical records on their machines. Almost two-thirds had suffered virus attacks, while 19 percent were found with active viruses on their machines during the study.

The word victim is often ascribed to consumers whose machines are infected by viruses, or hijacked by adware and/or spyware. Now I'm sure some legitimate adware marketers out there will object to my failure to distinguish herein between adware and spyware. I don't care.

Besides, I think it's a distinction without much of a difference in any event. But when my $2,000 PC suddenly starts behaving like a demonic arcade game, any perceived distinction between adware and spyware is suddenly rendered academic at best, and provides me with neither succor nor remedy. In essence, the fine print is almost always there to cover someone's ass, and it likely ain't mine -- or yours.

Of course, the presence of a victim generally assumes the presence of a victimizer. Amazingly, the legitimate marketing community -- at least in their professed concern for an already dangerously polluted digital marketing ecology -- counts itself among the victims.

We're the good guys, we say. We're adware, not spyware. We provide a valuable service. But our entreaties are falling on increasingly deaf ears: How do we explain what good guys we are to the millions of Americans who are now investing billions of dollars in ad-blocking and time-shifting media technologies just so they won't have to hear from us anymore? Perhaps an industry-sponsored spam campaign might work. It would at least be more honest.

There is no ROI in the absence of accountability, and there can be no accountability if everyone is a victim. Where is the ROI when everyone is working twice as hard and twice as long for half the returns?

Are consumers culpable? Yes. Does that absolve us as an industry? No. Are consumers responsible for what happens on their own PCs and in their own homes? Yes. Does that absolve us as an industry? No.

I would suggest that media and marketing professionals bear a special responsibility to clean up our own mess at this exact point in time. Stop the denial. Stop playing the victim. Start playing the victor. Therein lies the opportunity. Your thoughts?

Many thanks, as always, and best to you and yours.

Please note: The Einstein's Corner discussion group at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/einsteinscorner/ is dedicated to exploring the adverse effects of our addictions to technology and media on the quality of our lives, both at work and at home. Please feel free to drop by and join the discussion.