[microsound] the last.fm panopticon

[Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > Last.FM would be
> > willing to sign up for the same kind of service, but rather for
> > advertisers and tracking trends in purchasing statistics at grocery
> > stores? Or how about everywhere you drive each day?

Dominic
very good post...what you say is very true and should be the first  
question one asks when engaging with services such as MySpace,  
Facebook, Last.fm, etc
but the sad state of the world is that our data are already heavily  
tracked/spied upon/warehoused in the marketplace by corporate interests

all of our credit card data (purchases as well as late payments and  
any activity) is combed through and sold to advertisers who want to  
add us to a particular demographic that they can market into
after my credit cards were stolen in Brussels one time I started to  
receive debt refinancing emails from spammers - coincidence? like  
they say 'the question isn't am I paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?'
and it's getting more and more difficult NOT to own and/or use a  
credit card in the world these days
when I travel I use it
when I order online I use it
when I buy gas I use it
when I buy groceries I use it
when I withdraw money from a cash machine I use it

back in the mid-80's there was an article in Mother Jones or some  
similar alternative political magazine that really opened my eyes to  
the degree to which we are constantly monitored and modeled via our  
habits of consumption...and that was the mid-80's so you can imagine  
who much worse it has gotten with cell phones and PDA's and laptops  
and Internet

this is not to excuse using Last.fm – i.e.: suggestion that we dig  
ourselves deeper into the lack of personal privacy, but merely  
pointing out that places like Last.fm, which was purchased by CBS  
Interactive in 2007 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last.fm), probably  
makes the bulk of their income by selling their data to marketing  
companies and advertisers (read: spammers). One must understand this  
when starting a relationship with a service such as Last.fm.


to wit: here's a job posting on the Last.fm site:
====================

Director, User Insight and Analytics

Last.fm is looking for an outstanding strategic and quantitative  
analyst for its user insight and analytics efforts. The ideal  
candidate will have a solid background in online analytics, have a  
talent for framing difficult problems, synthesizing large amounts of  
data into action-oriented recommendations, communicating results  
clearly and know what Last.fm is about. The position is based in London.

Responsibilities

    * Collect, synthesize and present data on Last.fm’s users from  
multiple primary and secondary sources for internal and external  
audiences
    * Concisely summarize operational, marketing, and advertising  
partner performance
    * Develop metrics and benchmarks
    * Automate dashboards and recurring reports
    * Support ad-hoc requests for advanced analysis of marketing,  
operational, and advertising partner performance
    * Working closely with vendors and IT, continuously improve  
measurement capabilities to support deeper insight into audience  
needs, attitudes, and behavior

Requirements

    * A track record of strong academic performance and preferably  
an advanced degree in a quantitative discipline (e.g. Physics,  
Mathematics, Business, Economics, Statistics, Computer Science,  
Engineering).
    * A minimum of 5 years experience in online market research,  
media planning, database marketing, or similar quantitative discipline.
    * Hands-on SQL, data modeling, and warehousing experience required.
    * Experience with report automation and dashboarding (e.g. using  
Perl, PHP, VBA, PL/SQL or similar) highly desirable
    * Experience with advertising effectiveness research,  
entertainment media research, or marketing mix modeling a plus.
    * Experience with 3rd-party ad-serving or measurement tools  
(e.g. DART, Omniture, Nielsen, Comscore)

Pluses

    * Sense of humour
    * Something that passes for music taste

====================


so one can see that people with certain skills are employed (and  
sought after) by Last.fm for the singular purpose of warehousing,  
grooming and packaging user data for internal and external consumption.

I am open to suggestions as to how to deal with these issues and I  
appreciate any/all feedback w/r/t the .microsound community's  
involvement with Last.fm