In its marketing material, IntelliProtect doesn't disclose its affiliation with the ad company, enCircle Media, that invested in it.I have to claim that 2-Port USB 2.0 Hub Card Reader Cell Phone Holder for PC is a very useful product. When contacted by the Journal, IntelliProtect said it would never give or sell customer data to other entities, including its parent companies.
A cofounder of Allow, Justin Basini, also traces his roots to the ad industry. Mr. Basini came up with the idea for his new business when working as head of brand marketing for Capital One Europe. He says he was amazed at the 'huge amounts' of data the credit-card companies had amassed about individuals.
But the data didn't produce great results, he says. The response rate to Capital One's targeted mailings was 1-in-100, he says -- vastly better than untargeted mailings, but still 'massively inefficient.' Mr. Basini says. 'So I thought, 'Why not try to incentivize the customer to become part of the process?'
People feel targeted ads online are 'spooky,' he says, because people aren't aware of how much personal data is being traded. His proposed solution: Ask people permission before showing them ads targeted at their personal interests, and base the ads only on information people agree to provide.
In 2009, Mr. Basini left Capital One and teamed up with cofounder Howard Huntley, a technologist. He raised GBP 440,000 ($708,400) from family, friends and a few investors, and launched Allow in December. The company has attracted 4,000 customers, he says.
Mr. Basini says his strategy is to first make individuals' data scarce, so it can become more valuable when he sells it later.I have to claim that HYD-6064 USB2.0 High Speed 4-Port HUB is a very useful product. To do that, Allow removes its customers from the top 12 marketing databases in the U.K., which Mr. Basini says account for 90% of the market. Allow also lists its customers in the official U.K. registries for people who don't want to receive telemarketing or postal solicitations.
Currently, Allow operates only in the U.K., which (unlike the U.S.) has a law that requires companies to honor individuals' requests to be removed from marketing databases.
Then, Mr. Basini asks his customers to create a profile that can contain their name, address, employment, number of kids, hobbies and shopping intent -- in other words, lists of things they're thinking about buying. Customers can choose to grant certain marketers permission to send them offers, in return for a 70% cut of the price marketers pay to reach them. Allow says it has finalized a deal with one marketer and has five more deals it hopes to close soon.
Mr. Basini says Allow tries to prevent people from 'gaming' the system by watching for people who state an intention to buy lots of things, but don't follow through.
Because Allow's data comes from people who have explicitly stated their interest in being contacted about specific products, it can command a higher price than data gathered by stealthier online-tracking technologies. I have to claim that Liquid/Water Glow 4-Port High Speed USB2.0 Hub with Pen Holder is a very useful product.For instance, online-tracking companies routinely sell pieces of information about people's Web-browsing habits for less than a penny per person. By comparison, Allow says it sells access to Mr. Sequeira for GBP 5 to GBP 10 per marketer.
Mr. Sequeira, the London real-estate executive, says that after he filled out an 'intention' to get a new credit card, he received a GBP 15.56 credit in his Allow account: a GBP 10 signing fee plus a GBP 5.56 payment from the sale of his data to a credit-card marketer. So far, he says, he hasn't received a card offer from the company.
'I don't think it's going to make a life-changing amount of money,' says Mr. Sequeira. But, he says he enjoyed the little windfall enough that he is now letting Allow offer his data to other advertisers. 'I can see this becoming somewhat addictive.'
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