Author(s): Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Jennifer Urban
Year: 2012
Abstract:
Most
Americans have not heard of ‘Do Not Track,’ a proposal to allow Internet
users to exercise more control over online advertising. However, when
probed, most prefer that Do Not Track block advertisers from collecting
data about their online activities. This is a much more
privacy-protective approach for Do Not Track than what has been proposed
by the advertising industry.
In previous studies, we have found
that Americans think they are protected by strong online privacy laws.
Here, we probed beliefs about tracking on medical websites and ‘free’
websites, with most not able to answer true/false questions correctly
about tracking. This result brings into question notice-and-choice
models that depend on consumer understanding of the terms for their
legitimacy.
We also probed Internet users’ attitudes towards
advertising. Most Internet users say that they do not find utility in
online advertising, with half claiming that they never click on ads.
Advertisers
and consumers are at an impasse on privacy. Advertisers seem to be
seeking a kind of total information awareness for behavioral
advertising, and have proposed self-regulatory guidelines with little
bite. At the same time, both our survey evidence and media reports show
consumer opposition to tracking.
Do Not Track has emerged from
the current skirmish between consumers and advertisers, but it is a
relatively modest intervention that does little to shift the underlying
incentives that have driven increasing tracking and aggregation of
information about consumers. It is foreseeable that regardless of the
form Do Not Track takes, websites will simply require consumers to
disable it in order to access content. A fundamental change in
incentives may be necessary to relieve this impasse and find an approach
for advertising that is not so dependent upon third-party tracking and
aggregation of information, both online and off.
Keywords: behavioral advertising, online advertising, privacy, consumer protection, do not track, DNT, attributes toward advertising, utility of advertising, medial website tracking, free offers
Link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2152135