Websites like Google and Facebook use behavioral targeting heavily to help advertisers tailor advertisements. Our activities, likings and demographics are all captured by cookies through our word searches and digital profiles. This enabled advertisers to target consumers according to their interests.
So how do the consumers feel about this?
That’s what a recent study by professors at the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania tried to find out.
Out of the 1,000 surveyed, 66% of them stated that they do not wish to be targeted via behavioral advertising.
Other highlights of the study below
• 73 – 86% disapproved tailored advertising when they were informed of the ways marketers track their activities online and offline
• Ages 18-24 were more receptive to behavioral advertising. Nonetheless, 55% of them still disapproved tailored advertising
• 92% said there should be a law that requires websites and advertising companies to delete all stored information about them
• 86% of the young adults said they do not want tailored advertising if it is the result of following their behavior on websites other than the one they are visiting.
What did the authors say?
“Exactly why they reject behavioral targeting is hard to determine. There may well be several reasons. One may be a general antagonism to being followed without knowing exactly how or with what effects.
“Americans may not want their behavior on one site to somehow affect the interaction with subsequent sites. The rejection of even anonymous behavioral targeting by large proportions of Americans may mean that they do not believe that data about them will remain disconnected from their personally identifiable information.”
“Whatever the reasons, our findings suggest that if Americans could vote on behavioral targeting today, they would shut it down.”
Could websites like Facebook and Google be in danger?
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