When relevant advertising crosses a line
Imagine researching egg freezing. You might be exploring your options, navigating uncertainty or making one of the most personal decisions of your life.
Now imagine seeing fertility-related advertising on social media because you visited a healthcare website weeks earlier.
For a marketer, this might look like an effective retargeting campaign, but for the person receiving the advertisement, it could feel like an intrusion into an intensely private moment.
In June 2026, Australia’s Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) found that Monash IVF and Medmate Australia had breached privacy obligations involving sensitive information collected through third-party tracking pixels. The Monash IVF case included using information about visits to egg-freezing landing pages to retarget individuals with advertising.
It raises a fundamental question for marketers: Just because we can use data to target someone, does that mean we should?
What the Australian privacy rulings mean for marketers
Tracking pixels can help organisations understand website behaviour, measure advertising performance and reach relevant audiences, but they can also transmit browsing information to third-party advertising platforms.
And in sensitive contexts, even a page visit can reveal information about someone’s personal circumstances.
The Australian regulator recently found that healthcare providers had failed to meet applicable privacy obligations. The investigation also highlighted broader concerns about the collection of sensitive information and its use for targeted advertising.
For marketers, this raises an issue that extends beyond compliance: Does a technically effective campaign always create a positive customer experience?
The hidden cost of intrusive personalisation
Personalisation is often presented as an unquestionable marketing benefit: The more we understand about our audiences, the more relevant our communications can become.
But relevance doesn’t guarantee a welcome experience. Someone researching fertility treatment may not expect that their browsing activity could influence advertisements they encounter elsewhere online.
And even if advertising is intended to provide useful information, the experience may feel uncomfortable or invasive.
What a marketer sees as a conversion opportunity, a person may experience as an intrusion into one of the most private moments of their life.
That creates a potential risk for the brand. Customers don’t necessarily distinguish between the advertising platform, the tracking technology and the organisation whose website they visited. They associate the experience with the brand.
This means marketing performance can’t be evaluated through conversions alone. Customer expectations, privacy and long-term trust also matter.
Better marketing requires better decisions about data
Measuring performance and personalising communications are important parts of a good customer experience, but collecting and using data should be deliberate decisions.
Before implementing a tracking or targeting technology, organisations should consider:
- Is the data necessary? Does collecting this information support a clear business objective?
- Is its use appropriate? Could the information reveal sensitive personal circumstances? Would visitors reasonably expect it to be used for advertising?
- Do we understand where it goes? Which external platforms receive the information, and how might they use it?
- Are we respecting privacy requirements? Have we reviewed applicable consent obligations, notices and data-sharing practices?
- Are we considering the customer experience? Could a targeting strategy that appears effective in a dashboard undermine trust in the brand?
Addressing these questions helps teams make marketing decisions that respect people’s expectations and build trust over time.
How Matomo supports responsible measurement
At Matomo, we believe organisations should be able to understand their digital performance without sacrificing control over their analytics data.
That means separating the need to measure performance from the assumption that visitor information must be shared with advertising platforms.
Matomo provides an alternative approach to core web analytics through its core pillars:
- Data ownership and control: Cloud and On-Premise deployment options give organisations flexibility over how their analytics environment is managed.
- Privacy-conscious analytics: Configurable privacy features, including IP anonymisation, cookieless tracking options and data retention controls, help organisations align measurement with their privacy requirements.
- Reliable data for confident decisions: Unsampled analytics reporting helps teams understand digital performance without the limitations of report sampling.
- Measurement without unnecessary advertising-platform dependencies: Organisations can measure website performance with Matomo without relying exclusively on third-party advertising pixels for core analytics.
Matomo doesn’t automatically make every marketing implementation compliant or prevent intrusive retargeting. Organisations remain responsible for their advertising practices, consent requirements and other technologies.
But it gives marketing teams a foundation for making more deliberate choices about their data.
Privacy is part of better marketing
Australia’s tracking pixel rulings remind us that the consequences of data collection extend beyond regulatory compliance. They raise important questions about customer expectations, brand reputation and the boundaries of personalisation.
Marketing leaders need to understand when personalisation creates value and when it crosses a boundary.
Effective marketing starts with understanding what matters to your audience and respecting their boundaries.
Measure performance without compromising customer trust
Better analytics should help organisations build customer relationships, not put them at risk. Discover privacy-conscious web analytics with greater control over your data.
