Complaints over personalised advertisements

SOME Kiwis have lodged complaints with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after seeing their names displayed in ads on TVNZ OnDemand.

The advertisement included a personalised adaptation which allowed the TVNZ registered user’s first name to appear in a graphic of the video.

A total of four complaints expressed concern about the personalisation.

‘‘I am not a customer of BNZ, I don’t how they accessed my name via the OnDemand service, I did not give BNZ permission to use my name, I do not appreciate BNZ using my name,’’ one complainant said in response to the campaign.

The campaign was developed through a collaboration between BNZ, TVNZ and ad agency Colenso BBDO.

BNZ explained that it supplied the advertisement to TVNZ with a blank space in place of the generic name usually used. TVNZ then applied the first name of the user in that space using their TVNZ OnDemand account details.

‘‘BNZ takes the protection of personal information and data security very seriously, for cus tomers and noncustomers alike,’’ the bank said.

‘‘BNZ ensured that the process of TVNZ applying each user’s name to the advertisement did not involve the sharing of any personal information between BNZ and TVNZ.’’

TVNZ said it collected the personal details of viewers when they registered for the OnDemand service and that viewers ‘‘accept this privacy policy when they register an account with TVNZ OnDemand’’.

The ASA complaints board expressed concern that consumers were confused as to where BNZ sourced the information from and said TVNZ’s privacy policy in place at the time did not signal to users personal information would be used in that way.

Given TVNZ’s willingness to remove the ad and review its privacy policy, the ASA ruled that the matter was settled. — NZME