Waikato Online Monitoring
Years ago, while I was working for the IT group at Victoria I very nearly lost control at a co-worker (I refuse to describe him as a colleague). The idiot thought that it would be a good idea for the University to track people visiting our website and then, based on the pages they visited, spam them with targeted marketing. He failed to appreciate that many people would regard this as a gross violation of privacy and an abuse of our role as an information provider and educator. Luckily for Victoria, he soon left, sadly for Waikato University, they seem to have an idiot all of their own.
The University of Waikato is abusing their position by secretly monitoring visitors to their website and then using a cookie to ensure that ads are targeted to those visitors when they visit popular New Zealand sites. The ability of web hosts to track users through combinations of cookies and 'web bugs' has been criticised by privacy advocates internationally, its sad to see a New Zealand university proudly boasting of their 'accomplishment' in doing a similar thing. At the very least, Waikato should be checking with visitors to confirm their willingness to be manipulated. The timing is questionable too, as the recession is leading to more students studying anyway - surely they can't be that desperate for students.
Interestingly, the surrepticious collection of information from visitors to their website would appear to be in contravention of their own Privacy Policy principles:
"WhereÊanÊagencyÊcollectsÊpersonalÊinformationÊdirectlyÊfromÊtheÊindividualÊconcerned,ÊtheÊagencyÊshallÊtakeÊsuchÊstepsÊ(ifÊany)ÊasÊare,ÊinÊtheÊcircumstances,ÊreasonableÊtoÊensureÊthatÊtheÊindividualÊconcernedÊisÊawareÊofÑ Ê(a)ÊtheÊfactÊthatÊtheÊinformationÊisÊbeingÊcollected;ÊandÊ
(b)ÊtheÊpurposeÊforÊwhichÊtheÊinformationÊisÊbeingÊcollected;" (Principle 3)
Nowhere on their pages for prospective students is there any notice regarding this tracking and advertising system.
With any luck negative public response should awaken the wiser heads at Waikato, although the general apathy about pervasive marketing and the obvious desparation of the University for students may see this unpleasant activity continued.