Microsoft censors its own ad campaigns to send a security-minded message

Sophisticated security measures are definitely a point of competition, if not a necessity, for device makers. While most, if not all, companies build in security features, some explicitly tout them to would-be consumers as privacy and data security have become marquee points of interest. Many companies are finding ways to market their security-password-verification features of their smartphones and services in ways that meet consumers’ ballooning demand for everything ‘safety and security.’

Additionally, new technologies are being designed that can protect us from our own ever-growing digital identities and that may soon herald the end of email and texting scandals. An advancing suite of applications under this veiled communication trend are allowing people to engage in covert messaging and destroy access to communication after opening:

To prevent theft, Citibank is testing an ATM that scans your eyeballs, modern locks can now read your fingerprints, smart homes are beginning to be filled with light bulbs that boast their own memory banks.

Meanwhile apps like Kibo are paving the way for more discreet mobile messaging.

Most recently, Silk Labs’ Sense has given device owners privacy advantages little seen in the smart home market. Compared to other cloud-based solutions, Sense stores all data that is collected within its bowels locally within your home. You just touch a phone to Sense and encryption key and Wi-Fi credentials get passed between the two devices. Only trusted mobile handsets can pair with the device and can see the available security video feed of one’s living quarters.

Back in December, Microsoft aimed to emphasize the security feature of its Lumia smartphone. The company achieved this messaging by working to create a piece of native content that censors itself as the viewer reads the copy. It aimed to create buzz around one of the phone’s key features: its iris-scanning functionality that allows for biometric log-in and use of the device. From a marketing perspective, not allowing readers to see the articles was a bold, anticipatory move.

“We want to create an interest for our new phones that are equipped with eye scanning for logging in. That contributes to a safer smartphone….we have created a solution that communicates the message in an unexpected and efficient way,” Niklas Trieb, Marketing Manager for Lumia at Microsoft in Sweden, told Smashdig.

These articles, which seemingly appear to be just any other piece of native advertising, become illegible as the reader scrolls through the on-screen text. While the user moves through the content, it triggers a front-end program that starts to censor key numbers, names, places, dates and company or product names mentioned in the article. The words get impossible to read as they get covered with black rectangles — keeping the content hidden from prying eyes.

So, if Microsoft is willing to censor their own campaign just to make sure you get their security-minded message — or not, depending on how you cut — what are other companies willing to do to reach a growing throng of security-minded consumers? With enough time, one can expect more concerted efforts to treat security as the lynchpin of any promotional campaign surrounding the latest tech offerings.

Originally published at www.psfk.com on February 18, 2016.