Ben was a faculty member at Harvard Business School from 2007 to 2018. He published groundbreaking research about the Internet and online markets:
- He studied the game theory of online advertising, writing the seminal work on sponsored search advertising including the equilibrium concept used in literally thousands of papers that follow.
- He caught significant online privacy blunders by the Internet’s biggest companies, including Google Toolbar continuing to track user browsing even after users “disable” the toolbar, as well as Facebook revealing users’ names and details to advertisers (even after specifically promising the contrary).
- He led the fight against deceptive “adware” advertising software, including the first irrefutable proof of unwanted software sneaking onto users’ computers without consent, “confirmation” screens that installed software even when a user specifically declined, and adware and web sites that showed sexually-explicit images to kids, entirely unrequested. His efforts recovered tens of millions of dollars for online advertisers, and put three perpetrators in jail.
- He was an early skeptic of Bitcoin, blockchain, and supposedly-decentralized finance, publishing a 2014 critique that Bitcoin actually increases costs for consumers, and a 2015 article flagging illicit and unlawful activities, the risks of lurking centralization, and the need for greater consumer protection.
- He was an early critic of Google’s dominance, including uncovering the previously-secret “MADA” contract whereby Google forced phone manufacturers and telcos to preinstall all its apps if they wanted Google Play and YouTube. This contract had been unknown to the public, and then-CEO Eric Schmidt had even denied its existence in sworn testimony, until Ben posted it to his personal site.
As a teacher, Ben brought both academic rigor and modern technology to the HBS classroom. He devised a way to use digital tools to replace classroom chalkboards—making “board work” easier to read and more accessible to students with impaired vision. He was the first HBS faculty member to include software development within a MBA course, devising creative exercises to simultaneously engage students new to coding just as much as those with significant prior experience.
As an attorney, Ben reclaimed millions of dollars for parents and kids who were denied refunds by Apple and Facebook, and for passengers who were charged to check bags that American Airlines had promised to transport for free.
More at benedelman.org including bio and CV. LinkedIn profile.