The Daily You: How the New Advertising Industry Is Defining Your Identity and Your Worth

by Joseph Turow

The Internet is often hyped as a means to enhanced consumer a hypercustomized media world where individuals exercise unprecedented control over what they see and do. That is the scenario media guru Nicholas Negroponte predicted in the 1990s, with his hypothetical online newspaper The Daily Me —and it is one we experience now in daily ways. But, as media expert Joseph Turow shows, the customized media environment we inhabit today reflects diminished consumer power. Not only ads and discounts but even news and entertainment are being customized by newly powerful media agencies on the basis of data we don’t know they are collecting and individualized profiles we don’t know we have. Little is known about this new how is this data being collected and analyzed? And how are our profiles created and used? How do you know if you have been identified as a “target” or “waste” or placed in one of the industry’s finer-grained marketing niches? Are you, for example, a Socially Liberal Organic Eater, a Diabetic Individual in the Household, or Single City Struggler? And, if so, how does that affect what you see and do online? Drawing on groundbreaking research, including interviews with industry insiders, this important book shows how advertisers have come to wield such power over individuals and media outlets—and what can be done to stop it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cultural, Business, Internet, Contemporary, Psychology, Economics

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Mini · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book was decent, more like something I might read for a class than for my own personal growth. While I started it with the impression that it would clearly explore the way advertisers targeted different individuals, The Daily You was too technical for my taste. The numerous examples of companies, definitions of roles in the advertising business, and explanations of web history and the technologies created since the 1990s were either confusing or boring. While I do like learning new things, I feel like Turow threw too many at me at once. His descriptions on topics such as cookies and web beacons required intense focus to follow, and I don’t think they elicited enough interest to earn that. The first several chapters were devoid of much thought-provoking content, and didn’t express internet tracking in easily understandable terms. Additionally, there were very few connections between advertisers’ practices and their significance for individuals or society. After Turow taught me about something else media buyers or publishers might do, I thought “So what?”

I did think the later chapters of this book contained some more relevant information. Instead of just explaining the ways advertisers gather information about individuals, here, Turow mentioned how people might be affected. His descriptions of how companies can track their targets all the way into “brick and mortar stores” and on their television sets conjured up dystopian images. These sections actually made me want to learn more about tracking and what we can do about it. I was particularly interested in Turow’s descriptions of how personalized ads might begin to segment the population into different groups, weakening society, and making individuals feel inadequate. I also found his suggestions about how to solve this problem intriguing. This was the material I had been hoping to read throughout the whole book.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you'd like to be creeped out by what corporations, marketing, and media companies are doing to solicit and keep your business (and in the end, your $$), this book is for you. You may think those little "cookies" you clear out of your browser's cache every couple of months mean nothing, but really, they mean everything. They determine what ads you see, what offers/coupons you get, and what audience segments you fall into when data aggregators decide to collect all your information and sell it to the highest bidder.

Frankly speaking, it's worth knowing about, this business of buying and selling personally identifiable (PI) data. You should know that you're constantly being bought and sold over the Internet, and at times, your online information is being linked off-line, too. Keep in mind though, that this book can quickly become out of date, as mobile technologies change the nature of buying, selling, and tracking data. I imagine an update to this book by 2014 or 2015, if Turow can keep up.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good info, but as a book, it's pretty dry. And I would have liked more emphasis on the social effects of this personalized, targeted web - it's pretty much confined to the intro and the last chapter.

[Marcus Goncalves · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author provides a crucial examination of the current workings of advertising and the historical factors that have led to its present state. It prompts significant inquiries concerning matters such as privacy, social equity, and the interplay of technology and capitalism. It’s an old book by now (2013), but that’s on me, reading it too late. Great brights though.

[Ainsley Maddalena · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book taught me many things about the world of advertising, my issues lied in it’s repetitive nature. I wouldn’t say it’s worth a read, rather worth a skim. If you are interested in the world of cookies and don’t mind reading about business, then I would recommend this book.

[Magik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of good information but it also easily put me to sleep every time I had to read it.

[Thomas Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect textbook for the media world.

[Deb M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good info but very boring reading.

[Evan Miner · Rating 2 out of 5]

At first i had picked up this book because I wanted to learn more about the subject of targeted advertising. I assumed the book would be about the ethics of this and how it is being used in the world today, i unfortunately was not.

The book primarily focused on how information was collected about people and not about its effect. As someone reading this book already with a basic knowledge of the subject i thought it would be interesting to see someone else's point of view on the matter, but it ended up being extremely technical, not that i mind having that explained, it went on and on with just technicalities, and i found it boring, never completely finished the book because of this, and from skimming it did not appear to change much.

I think that while the matter is important this is not the book to read if you actually want to learn about it.

[Ahmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to say this book was one of my toughest reads to tackle, but the challenge was rewarding. This book has a lot of information to offer to many uninformed buyers about the advertisement business and how it operates and the secrets behind pulling some one in. I surely learned a lot from this book as it presented many great topics and modern examples of what goes on in the advertising business; and wouldn't mind going through it again sometime in the future.

Although I have to agree with another reviewer this book was pretty dry in some areas and quite confusing too. I almost just breezed through the pages looking for some good facts and interesting info. Overall this book is a good read.

[Roy Kenagy]

From Review, New Scientist Culture Lab: http://bitly.com/zSM0D3

"JOSEPH TUROW'S invaluable The Daily You is a warning about the impact of the "Web 3.0" revolution - though he doesn't use the term - on individual freedom and privacy.

"Coined by Reid Hoffman, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist and co-founder of LinkedIn, the term Web 3.0 defines our digitally networked age of "real identities generating massive amounts of data". It is via this avalanche of personal data, available through networks like Facebook, Foursquare, Google and The Huffington Post that, Turow warns, "the new advertising industry is defining your identity and your world"."

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very interested when this first was published, as I have an acquaintance who has worked for an internet advertising firm. I finally got around to reading it...or trying to read it...this week.

I found this overly dense and technical. Although the title seems to indicate that this is meant for the lay reader who might be interested in how their personal data/computer use is being tracked and used by advertisers, in truth it would be more of interest to business people/ad industry people as a history of internet advertising. I gave up about half-way through.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I'm glad I read this. I believe I heard about it after the author was interviewed on NPR.

That said, I do think it's a little on the dry / academic side. Most of the things in the book are not revelations to me, but I would have been interested in less speculation about what these things mean for society, and more technical detail and insight into how existing companies are (ab)using personal information.

[Ogi Ogas · Rating 3 out of 5]

My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.

[Mara · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know how you one time searched for something about a camera your friend had and now you're bombarded with ads as if you were Ansel Adams? Well, eventually that kind of stuff makes a difference... Honestly, I think I liked the NPR segment better than the book.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't make it through this book--as other reviewers say, it's somewhat technical. I just couldn't do it this time around, but it's very important information and I'd like to come back to it when I have more time to concentrate on it.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very informative look at the modern advertising world and the data collection that underlies it. Definitely a bit dense, but not overly academic or technical. A good companion to the Filter Bubble.

[Jen Watkins]

I had to return this one to the library before I could finish it. This one is probably worth checking out again.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

illuminating, but didn't make any grand conclusions.
great background on the industry & internet technology from a political and industry point of view.

[Nora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopped reading after 1/4 of the book. No longer interested in this topic, and the writing is too dry.

[Rrrattle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't make it through this book--as other reviewers say, it's somewhat technical. I just couldn't do it this time around, but it's very important information and I'd like to come back to it when I have more time to concentrate on it.