Everyone should be able to enjoy the benefits of being able to work, learn, connect and play safely online. This can happen when we have safe online environments that support, rather than undermine, people’s health and wellbeing.
Currently, when people are online, they are extensively tracked, profiled and targeted with data-driven advertising. This can be an extremely harmful form of marketing when it comes to addictive products like alcohol.
The report, Data-Driven Marketing of Harmful and Addictive Products, by FARE and VicHealth, found that companies marketing harmful and addictive products like alcohol and gambling are harvesting and drawing on data to push personalised digital ads, including to young people and others at risk of harm from these products.
Key findings include:
- People are profiled and targeted with highly personalised ads for harmful and addictive products when they are most susceptible to persuasion.
- Companies use data brokers and AI tools to identify and track intimate information including moods, mental health, purchasing history and movement patterns, serving up precision marketing in near real time.
- Consent is often assumed or bundled, and it is currently impossible for people to use popular digital platforms without being targeted by advertising for harmful and addictive products.
To reduce harm from data-driven marketing of harmful and addictive products, measures can seek to:
- Stem the extensive collection, use and generation of data about people, which is used to fuel data-driven marketing systems
- Ensure that people are not profiled and targeted in harmful ways when they are online, to protect people at risk of harm from harmful and addictive products
- Create greater transparency of data-driven marketing practices, to ensure companies can be held accountable for harmful marketing practices
With digital connection more important in our everyday lives than ever, it is essential that online environments are safe and healthy spaces for everyone.
