Impacts of Big Data Marketing upon Consumption Freedom and its Reflections

摘要

Boosting of big data has brought social changes on various aspects. Big data ethics is not only about the privacy and security, but also has impacts on consumption freedom. According from the big data's impacts on consumption behavior, this paper summarized the characteristics and the marketing reforms in the era of big data. It also analyzed how big data impacts consumption freedom and gave ethical reflections of this phenomenon. Through data collection and depicting "network portraits" of consumers, business operators plan a established consumption route for consumers with personalized prediction and accurate delivered of advertising, which imprisons the possibility of human's all-round development, weakens the people's ability of recognization. Though business operators have the positive liberty to do marketing activities, they cannot invade consumers' negative liberty, as consumers' experience is the most important element companies should consider. This paper provides a thinking framework for big data marketing ethics as well as ethical principles for promoting consumption freedom which are respect principle, participation principle and liberty principle.