Welcome


This blog is dedicated to the topics of Course materials, Innovation, and Technology in Education. it is intended as an information source for the college store industry, or anyone interested in how course materials are changing. Suggestions for discussion topics or news stories are welcome.

The site uses Google's cookies to provide services and analyze traffic. Your IP address and user agent are shared with Google, along with performance and security statistics to ensure service quality, generate usage statistics, detect abuse and take action.

Monday, June 30, 2014

App Allows Mobile Users to Avoid Ads

It took more than a century for telephone consumers to get the Do Not Call registry to opt out of unwanted calls from marketers and salespeople. Far less time has elapsed for the debut of an app that allows consumers to opt out of targeted mobile ads.

At its annual conference in San Francisco in late June, the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) introduced its new AppChoices app, which will enable people to just say no to receiving targeted ads on their mobile devices.

“The app will prevent people from seeing ads that are targeted based on the apps they use, the mobile equivalent of online behavioral targeting (which segments audiences based on the types of web content they view),” according to an article in Advertising Age. Those ads sport a small, blue, triangle-shaped icon in the corner.

The app doesn’t interfere with any mobile data collection based on the device’s location, just the receipt of ads. Right now the DAA is making it available to the advertising industry for evaluation and comment, but expects to roll it out to the public sometime this fall.

Assuming consumers latch onto AppChoices in droves like they did with Do Not Call, such an app could impact the marketing efforts of retailers trying to reach certain demographics through mobile media. Colleges and universities could also be hampered in recruiting enrollees, especially as more students turn away from other media channels in favor of mobile.