The Ad Industry Needs to Figure Out How It Feels About Reading Consumers’ Emotions

Opinion: What would people think about the way marketers use such data?

The technology is here that lets advertisers read consumers’ emotions. Now comes the hard part.

Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica incident was a Russian nesting doll of scandals. The most tangibly galling aspect was the use of consumer data. But further analysis showed that the company was using data about consumers’ emotions for targeted messages that took advantage of users’ anxiety or depression. It was manipulation, in other words. If Cambridge Analytica found that a Facebook user was prone to anxiety, then it showed them ads designed to exploit that fear.

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