Evil advertisements

These days it is difficult to get on the Internet and not find an advertisement tailored to your interests.

At first it seems clever that the World Wide Web knows how to filter out what most appeals to you as a user, but the truth is not so innocent. Marketers are in fact tracking the online movements of millions of people who use the Internet and then sharing this information with Web sites who are willing to pay for the data.

But is this the kind of hyper connective world that we want to live in? With companies tracking every move we make on the Internet, it seems we have really entered a world where privacy no longer exists.

A new study by the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California-Berkeley released last Tuesday is the first “independent, nationally representative telephone survey on behavioral advertising.”

And the sentiment expressed by Americans everywhere is that they want their activities and interests on the Internet to remain anonymous and out of the hands of marketers.

More specifically, the study found that of those surveyed, 66 percent of respondents did not approve of tailored ads.

The rate of disapproval rose as those leading the study told participants about the ways these tailored ads were created, such as following a person’s activities on a Web site, a competitor’s Web site or even in offline arenas.

However, when tracking online activity that contributed to a users lifestyle, such as discounts and news, sentiments seemed to shift. Fifty-one percent of people who participated in this study approved of tailored discounts and 58 percent had no problem with customized news.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents approved when asked if the U.S. Government should enact laws to give people more power over the information that is tracked from them. Ninety-two percent endorsed a hypothetical law that would require all Web sites, upon request, to delete the information they had about a particular person.

Such legislation could be a reality in the future.

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., said that he planned to introduce privacy legislation. In addiction, David Vladeck, who is head of consumer protection of the F.T.C, has suggested that he will begin to examine this issue closely.

And while public sentiment may not be on their side, marketing firms are still holding strong to the belief that online tracking is the way of the future.

They argue that this kind of advertising is what supports free online content and that instead of having the government regulate the practice, they would prefer to notify users when they are being tracked.

But no matter how uncomfortable the American people are with online tracking, it seems to be the way of the future. In the UK for the first time, firms have spent more money on online advertising than for television.

Factors such as the recession have contributed to this shift away from traditional media.

Regardless, the overwhelming sentiment in the country seems to be against tracking a persons activities on the Internet.

Marketers should take note of this study and understand that trying to sell something shouldn’t come at the expense of people’s privacy.