From the San Francisco Chronicle "Tech Chronicles"
Web users don't want advertisers collecting data
By Alejandro Martinez-Cabrera
For years marketers have argued that Web surfers prefer to see ads that cater to their specific interests, but a study from the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology at UC Berkeley and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania suggests otherwise.
The researchers [including I School doctoral student Jennifer King] surveyed 1,000 adult Internet users and found that two-thirds of them said they didn't want tailored ads. The number grew to between 73 and 86 percent once people were told about some of the techniques marketers employ to mine for information.
Among young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, 54 percent opposed the idea of behavioral targeting. Eighty-six percent of them said they didn't want advertising if it was the result of monitoring their online activities and 90 percent rejected it if offline information was being collected.
"Exactly why they reject behavioral targeting is hard to determine. There may well be several reasons," the study says. "One may be a general antagonism to being followed without knowing exactly how or with what effects. ... Another reason might be a fear that selective presentation of advertisements, discount offers or news will put them at a monetary or social disadvantage: some people might get more useful or interesting tailored content than others depending on the conclusions marketers draw about them."...