Contemporary anxieties about privacy, the abuse of personal information and the commercialisation of the public sphere sit uneasily alongside our ready acquiescence in handing over our private data for access to online products and services. Nowhere is this tension better embodied than in the current ubiquity of personalised communications – from algorithms that determine your Amazon recommendations to tailored emails in B2B marketing, data has empowered companies to personalise their messages at scale. The Issue Focus section of this magazine explores the how and why of data-driven personalisation, as well as the pitfalls and ethical implications.
