Yesterday I attended an event at the IAB which looked at how we can counter growing concerns from the public around what information is being captured and used to serve them adverts online.
The speakers focused on the collection and use of information that drives business models – and how this will be affected by upcoming European legislation which could lead to many users disabling the technology which helps advertisers target banner ads and the like.
The event was supporting the use of the advertising ‘icon’ now being rolled out on web adverts across Europe (you’ve probably already seen banner ads with it nestling in the top corner). The icon is “at the heart of a pan-EU self-regulatory programme to enhance transparency and consumer control over customised advertising using behavioural data” which means that the advertisers are looking to prove that they can get their house in order before any regulators try to step in and do it for them. The icon links users through to a page where they can read information pertaining to how cookies are used and, should they wish, gives them the ability to ‘opt-out’ removing the ability of some or all the sites they visit to capture this data.
The most interesting insight from the talk was the stat that whilst views of the info site had risen by a factor of 16 in the past two months the rate of people ‘opting out’ has remained at the same low level. It seems that all those extra people looking to find out more about how websites capture their data are not alarmed enough by what they discover to remove their favourite sites’ ability to do so. As we might have suspected once they understand more exactly what is being captured and how it is being used web users seem relatively comfortable with the trade-off between sacrificing a degree of privacy in order to recieve more targeted content. Advertisers will be hoping this trend continues.
