MacBook Pro
By now, everyone has read and/or experienced something relating to the the use of predictive analytics. Most notably, we’ve seen the results of tracking done by Facebook, Google and Amazon.com. We’ve all noticed those tailored ads appearing in our search results, to the right of our Facebook page and in our Amazon.com searches.
Orbitz is now demonstrating how tracking the fact that people are visiting their website from a Mac can lead to predictions about tastes and spending habits. The assumption is that Mac users have higher income levels and spend more money.
“Orbitz executives confirmed that the company is experimenting with showing different hotel offers to Mac and PC visitors, but said the company isn’t showing the same room to different users at different prices.” Users may also choose to rank results by price.
Mac users are spending an average of $20 to $30 more a night on hotels than PC users which is substantial when you consider the site’s average nightly hotel booking is about $100, chief scientist Wai Gen Yee said. Mac users are 40% more likely to book a four-star hotel than PC users, Mr. Yee said, and when Mac and PC users book the same hotel, Mac users tend to stay in more expensive rooms.
“We had the intuition, and we were able to confirm it based on the data,” Orbitz Chief Technology Officer Roger Liew said. It will be interesting to see if these efforts boost Orbitz’s 2012 earnings. It lost $37 million in 2011 and its stock has fallen by more than 74% since its 2007 IPO.
What do you think about this use of predictive analytics? Do you feel this is a privacy violation? Will you take steps to perform searches differently now that you are aware this is happening?
This is not a privacy violation any more than a website changing its layout to better fit the size of your screen is a privacy violation. Every website is already tracking many details about the computer you are using, what software is running on it, and the web browser used to visit the site. This is just Orbitz taking advantage of the information they already have to allow users to more easily find what they are looking for. A Mac user can, with one click, sort the Orbitz results by price, and see what any other Windows user would see.
Thanks for the comment Elazar. I agree with most of what you say, and said so in the post. I do find it curious that you think Mac users are actually looking for more expensive hotel rooms and PC users are looking for less expensive ones. You may be right. Personally, I’d prefer to just click the button to sort it myself instead of having Orbitz assume one way or the other based upon the computer I am using to access their site. But that’s just me. Thanks again for the comment!