THIS IS A CASE STUDY WORK NEED ANSWERS Closing Case Flurry G

THIS IS A CASE STUDY WORK NEED ANSWERS

[Closing Case Flurry Gathers Data from Smartphone Users] A woman waits in an airline lounge. She scrolls through her iPhone and launches a free mobile game. An instant before the app loads, a company called Flurry (www.flurry.com) runs an auction targeted specifically for her. Flurry presents the woman to dozens of advertisers in multiple capacities: a new mother, a business traveler, a fashion follower, a woman in her late twenties, and someone located near the Atlanta airport. In a fraction of a second, the Flurry auction picks the highest bidder, an advertiser who is also most likely to be offering goods or services that the woman might want. The woman then views an ad for designer sunglasses. Significantly, she is completely unaware that any of this background activity has occurred. Flurry (purchased by Yahoo! in 2014) is in the business of mobile, real-time bidding (RTB). RTB refers to the process whereby advertising inventory is bought and sold on a per impression basis, via instantaneous auction. With real-time bidding, advertising buyers bid on an impression, and the winner’s ad is instantly displayed. (An impression is a measure of the number of times an ad is seen. Each time an ad displays is counted as one impression.) A typical transaction begins with a user visiting a mobile website. This visit triggers a bid request that can include various pieces of data such as the user’s demographic information, browsing history, location, and the page being loaded. The request is forwarded to an ad exchange, which submits it and the accompanying data to multiple advertisers. In turn these advertisers submit bids in real time to place their ads. The impression goes to the highest bidder, and their ad is served on the mobile page. In essence, Flurry provides a high-speed auction system for targeting ads to individuals. Mobile RTB permits advertisers to bid for each impression. This system is in sharp contrast to a static auction, in which the advertisers typically bundle impressions in groups of 1,000. Flurry recently launched a pair of real-time mobile ad exchanges that uniquely handle both demand and supply in the ad marketplace. Flurry maintains it has sufficient data to link the two exchanges together. Flurry’s other major selling point is the massive amount marketplace. Flurry maintains it has sufficient data to link the two exchanges together. Flurry’s other major selling point is the massive amount of data that it collects on mobile app users. The reason that you have never heard of Flurry is that you never put it on your smartphone. App makers did. In fact, in a typical device the software is contained in 7–10 apps. Why? The answer is that Flurry gives away an analytics tool that informs app makers as to how people are using their apps. More than 400,000 apps now use the Flurry tool. In return, they send much of that user data back to Flurry. Flurry, therefore, has a pipeline to more than 1.2 billion devices globally. The company collects, on average, 3 terabytes of data every day. Flurry solves a huge problem for apps that are designed to sell ads. On a desktop computer, advertisers can target consumers by using cookies, which are tiny data files attached with your browser. In contrast, mobile phones do not have cookies in their browser, so advertisers don’t know who you are, Flurry software assists advertisers by encrypting and combining identifying bits of data about each user to create an anonymous ID for each device. Specifically, it classifies each user into one of roughly 100 “personas”; that is, psychographic profiles such as “business traveler” and “sports fanatic.” Note that each persona has multiple characteristics. Advertisers use the characteristics of these personas to target ads. While providing a major benefit to advertisers, Flurry’s policy of encrypting personal information into an anonymous ID has raised serious concerns among privacy advocates. For example, one legal researcher in Europe charges that Flurry is already in breach of the European Union’s (EU) E-Privacy Directive, which applies to mobile devices. The directive states that end users should be notified of cookies or tracking programs above and beyond the opt-out option that Flurry offers. The researcher maintains that to satisfy these requirements Flurry should be required to obtain consent from each user. Specifically, each time an EU resident opens an app that uses Flurry, a pop-up must inform this individual that the tool is tracking him or her. Flurry counters by reassuring users that the company does not collect personally identifiable information.

(CASE STUDY QUESTIONS) NEED ANSWERS FOR THEESE

1. Do you feel that Flurry should be installed on your smartphone by various app makers without your consent? Why or why not? Support your answer.

2. What problems would Flurry encounter if someone other than the smartphone’s owner uses the device? (Hint: Note how Flurry gathers data.)

3. Can Flurry survive the privacy concerns that are being raised about its business model?

Solution

1. I think yes.globally 1.2 billion devices are connected to flurry.Example when ever we are using smart phones particular games collect all of our information. Pokeman go like..

2. Devices like PC connected through internet are also connected by flurry.  advertisers can target consumers by using cookies, which are tiny data files attached with your browser.

3.Yes.

Flurry counters by reassuring users that the company does not collect personally identifiable information.