Target Example

Consider a now famous example from 2009. After a teenage girl purchased a pregnancy test from Target using her credit card, the retailer began sending baby-flyers and coupons to her address. Her father, irate, complained to the store for their inappropriate tailored advertisements because he was unaware of his daughter’s pregnancy. Weeks later, he apologized learning that she was in fact pregnant- something the store knew about his daughter before he did. Although in this example Target did accurately tailor the advertisement to the teenager, had the pregnancy test been negative, the flyers would once again have been labeled an invasion of privacy.

The Target example raises questions about the ethical use of tracking software. There is simply no way for customers to opt-out of the tracking, meaning they receive targeted ads no matter what. In the case of the above teenager, this meant revealing a sensitive secret to her family. When applying the “rational analysis” guideline from Bowen, it is likely that this is not a tactic that practitioners would want used on themselves.