Oct 1 , 2009

The first independent, academically rigorous survey of consumers' views says two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers.

According to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley, 66% of adult US citizens have expressed objections at receiving advertising tailored to what advertisers think are their interests.

The number rises to 86% when the results are tabulated for a sample that was informed of the ways marketers gather information about consumers.

92% said there should be a law that requires "Web sites and companies to delete all stored information about an individual, if requested to do so."

Growing dislike for behavioural tracking

In recent years, advertisers and publishers are increasingly tracking web users' behaviour and to try to show them adverts that they think will be more relevant to them.

Clearly, Americans are at the forefront of the realization that web users’ behaviour is not entirely private and are doing something about it.

The Berkeley-Annenberg study said "It is hard to escape the conclusion that our survey is tapping into a deep concern by Americans that marketers' tailoring of ads for them and various forms of tracking that informs those personalizations are wrong."

The new study was based on phone interviews with 1,000 randomly-selected people, which was weighted using census data to be nationally representative.

'No' for Anonymous Tracking Too

Advertisers that track web behaviour claim since a user's name is not discovered or stored the nature of tracking is anonymous.

But the study found that even with anonymity as a guarantee, web users are still likely to reject tracking ad tailoring.

"Assurance of anonymous tracking doesn’t seem to lower Americans’ concerns about behavioural targeting," it said.

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