User, geographical and browser data make the Web go ’round. Consider what would happen if this information were hidden from the prying eyes of Internet giants. Facebook and Google would not able to send direct and specific advertisements to users, Web video and music sites would no longer be able to restrict users based on country of origin, and content owners would lose the ability to sell and guarantee different distribution rights to different countries. As Ad Age’s Michael Learmonth put it, “China wouldn’t be able to censor YouTube.”
A lot of the global Web infrastructure depends on this personal metadata, and a loss of it could change how companies operate and how advertisers target users. This loss of data is slowly happening, on a small scale, thanks to service called Hotspot Shield. Hotspot is an ad-supported free “virtual private network,” and it claims to have 5.5 million users globally, up from 1 million last year at this time.
While some browsers have private modes and users can easily delete cookies, browsers still transmit their IP address and geographic and demographic information HotSpot assigns a new IP address for each session, and the user appears as a US visitor to services like Google.
The service says 4 million of its users are outside of the US, but all of these users would have access to the US domains from Facebook and Google to Hulu and Skype.
Advertising Age reports that most of the traffic for this service comes from regions where Google and similar sites are censored.
– 4 million use the software to access Google.
– 800,000 use it to surf YouTube.
– Roughly 500,000 use it to access Facebook.
– 125,000 are using it to watch shows on Hulu.
Information like this makes the need for international video and music distribution deals imperative. YouTube is full of videos that show users how to use Hotspot Shield, with a favorite topic of how to watch YouTube where it’s banned. There are also quite a few that show users how to view Hulu in the UK and Europe.
The numbers aren’t staggering in terms of the Internet and global populations, put its growth rate is still impressive. If a service that serves simply to mask a user’s identity can see a 450% annual growth, the factors behind the service’s popularity are worth taking a look at.
Every new portal for music, videos or other content always pops up in one country first. Sometimes they make it to other countries, but often they stand landlocked behind borders. If content owners and copyright holders ever needed an incentive for allowing their content to be seen internationally, HotSpot is it.
Web users want the content they want, when they want it and on whatever device they want it on. Geographical limitations are becoming less of an issue and will continue to become less significant as technology like this continues to develop.
Extremely invasive behavioral targeting by advertisers and censorship are two other reasons for the service’s popularity. The Web has lost a lot of its privacy, even if the companies involved don’t know a user’s name.
“Our goal is to give users complete ownership of their own data online and take it away from the big corporate servers where it is stored now,” CEO David Gorodyansky told Ad Age.
The best part of the service is that it protects users from invasive advertisements and it has its own ad model. The service is supported by ads displayed to users. Once a user turns on the shield, an ad appears at the top of the browser for the user to see. Since the shield protects the user’s personal information, users select a category they are interested in and related advertising is displayed.
It isn’t tough to see the service growing beyond its current numbers. Users will continue to demand access to content and content restrictions will leave many feeling unfairly punished for not living in the US or Europe. The company could also see user growth as advertisers continue to blur the line of what is and isn’t private information.