Have you wondered how a brand seems to know exactly what you need or, sometimes, what you did not know you wanted?

This stems from targeted advertising, which relies on analysing consumer behaviour.

Bonfire Marketing Manager Rob Di Giovanni said his company recommended the practice to its clients, rather using than a wide-ranging campaign.

“You have a much smaller group of people, but you’re hoping that because they should be more aligned with the message you’re advertising, you’ll get better results,” he said.

When does this practice become unethical?

Mr Di Giovanni said Bonfire relied on ethically sourced information for any targeted advertising campaign.

Bonfire looks at first-party data, which is information a company collects from its audience across its own channels with the consent of the consumer – for example, when you provide your home or mailing address for an online transaction.

“That’s the best kind of data because the customer knows they’re given it out and there’s a meaningful exchange,” Mr Di Giovanni said.

However, Mr Di Giovanni acknowledged the dark side of targeted advertising – when a company exploited cookies to monitor a user’s behaviour on a website.

Cookies are small pieces of data stored on your device by websites you visit, which companies can use to track a consumer’s online activity. While they are traditionally anonymised and used to build up a picture of a consumer, they become unethical when paired with first-party data.

“All of a sudden, you have this complete picture of one individual’s behaviour online,” Mr Di Giovanni said.

What regulations apply to targeted advertising?

Curtin University School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry Professor of Internet Studies Tama Leaver said with targeted advertising’s prominence, stricter marketing regulations were important.

He pointed to the Australian Privacy Principles – the cornerstone of the privacy protection framework in the Privacy Act 1988 – which state that an organisation must not use the personal information it has collected on an individual for direct marketing, however exceptions applied.

Professor Leaver believes that without further regulations, the practice teeters on becoming completely unethical.

Bio: Ariana Koskela-Reyes is a third-year Bachelor of Global Communications and Media student at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. She is currently on an exchange at Edith Cowan University as part of her dual-degree program, majoring in Journalism.