PC World: Autocomplete Astroturfing Struck Down in Japan

I encounter many circumstances where Google (or Yahoo) autocomplete suggests phrases that are inaccurate or unfair when applied to my client's name or business. In many cases, these autocomplete phrases are the result of astroturfing campaigns by advocates designed to harass or intimidate my client.

A Japanese court has now ruled that Google must remove auto-complete results that link a man to crimes he says he didn't commit.

"The auto-complete function in Google's search bar fills in crimes when my client's name is entered," said Tokyo lawyer Hiroyuki Tomita.

"He lost his job, and has had other job offers rescinded, likely because of this association."

The search giant likely links the man's name to the crime terms because a false story about him containing allegations apparently spread across various sites, which were then indexed by the search giant, Tomita said. The man says he has no knowledge of the types of crimes that appear.

As of this writing, Google has not complied with the court's order.

We hope that intentional harassment and intimidation through the spread of false information via autocomplete is attacked in the U.S. as well.

Link: PC World

HT: The Blaze

NYT: Targeting Target

Today's New York Times Magazine article on retail data and privacy (How Companies Learn Your Secrets) illustrates how easy it is for media to portray the same set of facts in either a positive or negative light. The thesis of the story is that Target uses data they harvest about your shopping habits to determine specific life events (preganancy is the example), and market to you based on the information they have gathered.

Target could have participated in this story and helped shape it, and how the facts in it were presented. They chose not to, and instead offered a quote that makes them look secretive:

“Almost all of your statements contain inaccurate information and publishing them would be misleading to the public. We do not intend to address each statement point by point.” The company declined to identify what was inaccurate. They did add, however, that Target “is in compliance with all federal and state laws, including those related to protected health information.”

Not helpful. Especially when they then kicked the writer out of their store. The writer is a Times reporter with a book coming out, and it follows in the footsteps of other very successful business authors who explain motivation and reward in very understandable ways.

You can usually see crises coming, if you know where to look. Target's core demo will not appreciate the main message of the book,, which is that Target uses what they know about you to cause you to buy things without knowing why or how it is happening.

Unfortunately, the book's premise is just one interpretation of the facts. But Target lost their best opportunity to offset it with their own rationale. A shame.

Budweiser Pitch Perfect Use of Digital/Social

This YouTube video is a thing of beauty.

A community hockey game suddenly invaded by an entire professional hockey experience... hundreds of fans, cheerleaders, cameras and announcers. The guys who play only for the love of the game turned into stars and overcome with emotion. Budweiser never mentions their brand outloud, but makes you want to stop everything you are doing and buy a six pack, just to thank them for making you feel this way. 

This is what it's all about. Watch it right now.

Lessons from The Komen Crisis

The moment Komen decided to cut off Planned Parenthood funding, the entire roll out of events was predictable. With the decision reversed, it's time to take stock and apply the lessons learned ourselves:

1. It doesn't matter if you intend a decision to be political or not... if it has political consequences, it's political. This firestorm was not only predictable; it was absolutely mandated by the nature of the decision. 

2. If your organization is not political, you will never win by falling on one side or another in a political circumstance. It's a guaranteed loss, regardless of your intent. 

3. Decisions with weak rationales fail the public sniff test. No one believed that this new policy of ending funding for "organizations under investigation" was targeting anyone other than Planned Parenthood. Which is not to say that they didn't have the right to make it; they did. It was their explanation that exacerbated the problem. 

Komen did recognize the reality of their untenable position, apologize and reverse course quickly. That was smart. Their statement today is right on target. It's all they can do today... be contrite, and find the positive in the storm. 

But this isn't over yet. Someone is going to lose their job. Depending on the kind of statement the board wants to make, they will either resign or be fired. It will take a day to a week, depending on how resolute their Board is in acting, and the specifics of the underlying circumstance. But we do need a human sacrifice before we can all move on. Ironic, isn't it?

Safeway: Once is forgivable... Twice Not So Much.

Sometimes a story breaks out because it represents an uncommon lack of common sense. Last month, a pregnant woman was arrested at Safeway and jailed... for forgetting to pay for a sandwich, after paying for $50 of groceries. Oh, and her toddler daughter was placed in foster care for a day while mom and dad made good on a couple of $5 sandwiches. Safeway said, "From our preliminary investigation, it appears we may not have handled this matter in the best possible way. We are taking this situation seriously, and giving it our full attention." It got a lot of media coverage, and made Safeway look much worse than foolish.

Yesterday, in another Safeway, a 4 year old girl opened a package of dried fruit and ate a few pieces while her parents were facing the other way. A store security guard took her to a locked room, told her father she would face criminal charges, and made the girl (age 4!) sign a document acknowledging she was banned from all Safeway stores for life.

Safeway now has a significant and systemic problem. Expect the media to be hunting for other stories of abuse of process committed by their private security employees. And with the number of stores they have, no doubt some will be found. And the cycle will repeat. Safeway's only choice is to announce a new training program and store policies now, or wait until they get tortured with more stories and a few State AGs start an investigation.

In Safeway's defense, shoplifting and employee theft are usually the largest single loss in operating a grocery store. It's fair to want it stopped. And they fired the security guard who behaved like an idiot.

Safeway said (this time), "Our policies on shoplifting are intended to protect our customers, but built on common sense. And everyone understands what common sense is."

Well, maybe not everyone.

Thanksgiving Turkey from Qantas...

So, here's a lesson for marketers everywhere: If you shut your airline down to force a labor confrontation nd strand 80,000 people around the World for three days, a month later isn't the best time to start a social media campaign.

Especially if the topic is Qantas Luxury.

Who thought inviting customer feedback on a very public social media channel was a good idea?

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

@GrogsGamut tweeted: "#QantasLuxury- when the passengers arrive before the couriers delivering the lockout notices do".

@aptronym said: "Getting from A to B without the plane being grounded or an engine catching fire. #qantasluxury".

And @the-aaron-smith said: "#qantasluxury is chartering a Greyhound bus and arriving at your destination days before your grounded Qantas flight".

Social media expert James Griffin from SR7 said that by about 1pm, Australians were sending out 51 tweets a minute on the hashtag. The majority of these were tweets making fun of the idea of #qantasluxury.

A particularly brilliant individual made the Hitler parody video at the top of this post (NSFW:language). Qantas should hire him... he is the only one in this whole fiasco with a social media strategy that works.

Amazon: Sometimes you can see problems coming...

Amazon is fighting a multifront attack on collecting State Sales Taxes, and that puts their business activities in the spotlight in any number of state legislatures.

That makes this story in the Allentown Morning Call really dangerous to Amazon, and they haven't handled it very well so far, based on the content. It's about working conditions at their warehouses. I have no ideas if the charges the story makes are true or uncommon with regards to other similar operations, but Amazon's lack of participation in defining this story is alarming. Especially since Amazon is using the promise of jobs to stave off collecting sales tax.

Either you shape the story or are shaped by it. Amazon is being shaped, and it's not a pretty picture.

Before You Press "Send" on that Email...

Please make sure you know who you are sending it to, and how you are sending it.

A South Florida political fundraising email is making headlines this week when a law firm staffer forgot the difference between cc and bcc... exposing an email list of hundreds of lobbyists and political types.

Politico has the story.

Everyone has sent an email to the wrong person before, which is why it bears repeating.. if the email is important, sensitive or potentially embarassing, look twice, carefully, before you rpess send.

Kissmetrics Super Cookie Opt-Out

The Wall Street Journal has been tracking the story of a particularly invasive variety of tracking cookie from a company called Kissmetrics. This cookie lives outside the places where cookies are normally stroed in your computer, and spawns new tracking cookies whetnever it wishes. 

Many feel that it is invasive and unreasonable in it's behavior, and intentionally difficult to find and remove. 

After significant outcry, the company has added a simple web page to turn off it's tracking. If you use more than one browser or machine, you need to visit it from every one.

Regardless of how yopu feel about Internet privacy, it's good practice to send a message about this kind of poorly disclosed and enexpectedly invasive tracking. 

Small Acts and Symbols...

Rachel Beckwith, 9 year old heroine

Most of us who aren't celebrities ask what real difference we can make in the world, but stall out when it comes to delivering the goods. Some of this is narcissistic, wanting to leave the biggest footprint we can, and preferring to have big dreams than perform small acts. But for 9 year olds, every motive for helping others is pure, and sometimes small acts have big outcomes, even when tragedy intervenes. 

Rachel Beckwith is 9, and recently saw a presentation at her church from a man who works in developing nations to provide clean water. To a 9 year old, life is simple... if you want to help, you help. She asked her friends and family to forego her birthday presents and donate the money to Clean Water. She set a goal of $300, and fell just a bit short, at $220. But that was $220 more than almost anyone else who saw the presentation raised.

In her own words:

On June 12th 2011, I'm turning 9. I found out that millions of people don't live to see their 5th birthday. And why? Because they didn't have access to clean, safe water so I'm celebrating my birthday like never before. I'm asking from everyone I know to donate to my campaign instead of gifts for my birthday. Every penny of the money raised will go directly to fund freshwater projects in developing nations. Even better, every dollar is "proved" when the projects are complete, and photos and GPS coordinates are posted using Google Earth. My goal is to raise $300 by my birthday, June 12, 2011. Please consider helping me.

Life is simple when you're 9 years old. Except when it isn't. 

Rachel died Saturday from a car accident, after several days on life support. 

As word of her charity spread, her friends, family, and soon those who knew her as no more than the subject of a tragedy decided to make her charity her legacy. They started passing around the web page for donations to her chosen cause. 

And as of today, her effort to raise $300 has raised $95,000. By the time you read this it will be more. 

We're all inundated by calls for help around us, from causes large and small. We are sympathetic, we feel their need, and all too often we let that symbol of caring substitute for really doing something. Better to do something small and tangible than feel something huge and unattainable. 

Lives will be saved because Rachel Beckwith chose to do something small instead of just feeling something big. Her death is a tragedy, and donating $10 won't change that. But it will make life better for someone else.

While you're thinking about how you want to leave your mark on the world, maybe you'd like to really do something small right now? 

MyCharity: Water: Rachel Beckwith's Charity

KOMO: The Rachel Beckwith Tragedy: Her heart was bigger than this room"