He’s Been Right Twice Before. Is Gurbaksh Chahal Also Right About Tracking?

March 29, 2011 By

Until today, I had not heard of Gurbaksh Chahal, founder, Chairman & CEO of RadiumOne.

My bad.

Chahal–a serial entrepreneur, who sold his first company at the age of 16 for $40 million–is also an international best-selling author of The Dream, the true inspirational tale of his entrepreneurial journey.

Thankfully, I am aware of RadiumOne. According to Fast Company, the company “uses a patent pending algorithm from public and anonymized data from social networks to build ad preferences based on behavior, rather than brute-force broadcasting to websites with a ratio of certain demographics.” In other words, they track every move you make and use that data to deliver more relevant online ads.

Chahal believes, “Consumers want to see relevant ads.” Faced with more options than pop-ups and flashy banner ads, publishers “can make money through brands and through relevant advertising. And, all that makes everybody happy.”

Everybody except privacy advocates.

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Filed Under: Ad People, Advertising Technology, Data, Social Networks
About David Burn

I wrote my first ad for a political candidate when I was 17 years old. She won her race and I felt the seductive power of advertising for the first time. Today—after working for seven agencies in five states—I am head of brand strategy and creative at Bonehook in Portland, Oregon.