When it comes to privacy, perception is what matters

In light of the proposed Do Not Track law in New York, the results of a survey of consumer attitudes toward web tracking sponsored by TRUSTe are interesting:

Although only 40 percent of the group was familiar with the term “behavioral targeting,” most users were well aware of the practice. 57 percent reported that they weren’t comfortable their activities tracked for advertising purposes, even if the information couldn’t be tied to their names or real-life identities.

Simultaneously, 72 percent of those surveyed said that they find online advertising annoying when the ads are not relevant to their needs, and 87 percent of the group said that under a quarter of ads are well-targeted towards them. 58 percent said that zero to 10 percent of ads are well-targeted.

TRUSTe notes that this attitude presents a conundrum for advertisers, who are simultaneously being told that consumers want to see more relevant ads but don’t want to have their activities tracked in order to make those ads relevant.

Anonymous tracking is good for advertisers and consumers. It means that consumers can see relevant content (including ads), and that advertising can support the creation of web content. But as an industry, we’ve done a pretty bad job explaining what’s going on to consumers. Add to that general fears about the privacy of electronic data, and the marketing nirvana of combining online behavioral data with offline personal data, and it’s not wonder people are nervous.

Even if you don’t think legislation is imminent, remember that it doesn’t take legislation to create problems. A widespread move by consumers to reject all third party cookies or to set their browsers to keep Javascript from running would create havoc for advertising and in our web analytics. Given the general anxiety about the subject, is it hard to imagine this becoming an easily-accessible browser setting or a plugin for Firefox?

Ultimately what marketers are doing is less important than the confidence of consumers that we’re not doing anything shady. That means educating the public about basic tracking and how it helps them, and not combining online and offline data. As a marketer I see the appeal of that, but as a consumer and citizen, I don’t like it one bit, and I’m not surprised that many people feel the same way.

If the public doesn’t trust marketers, eventually there will be legislation, and before that there will be consumer behavior that reduces the usefulness of tracking - and that will be a direct hit to the online advertising industry. It’s not too late for some self-control and self-regulation, but we need to be listening to what users are telling us now.

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