Many internet users uncomfortable with behavioral marketing

The majority of internet-using adults are skeptical about websites that use information about their online activities to provide customised web content and advertising, according to a new survey.

Questioning over 2,500 adults in the US, market research firm Harris Interactive found that 59 per cent of adults are uncomfortable with websites, such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, using information about their online habits to tailor advertising and content.

Interestingly however, the number of people uncomfortable with the practice dropped to 45 per cent after the researchers introduced four privacy and security policies intended to protect their personal information.

Dr Alan Westin, professor of public law at Columbia University and designer of the survey, said that websites pursuing behavioural marketing should make greater efforts to persuade consumers that removing irrelevant ads can be beneficial to them.

He commented: "The failure of a larger percentage of respondents to express comfort after four privacy policies were specified may have two bases - concerns that web companies would actually follow voluntary guidelines, even if they espoused them, and the absence of any regulatory or enforcement mechanism in the privacy policy steps outlined in the question."

Recently, children public interest groups in the UK and US have been campaigning to prohibit marketers from collecting information online from children under 18 and using it for behavioural marketing purposes.


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