CookieLaw Blog May 21, 2014

More Consumers Turn Against Online Tracking

A new consumer survey in the US has found that 85% of consumers are opposed to ubiquitous tracking by online advertising companies.

According to an article published by Consumer Reports, who organised the survey, the vast majority of consumers see little or no value in behaviourally targeted advertising.  Increasing numbers are turning to tools that block ads, or using privacy centric search engines, to avoid being tracked.

Of course we cannot draw too many conclusions about this for UK or European audiences – but other surveys in this area have reached similar conclusions and tended to show broadly similar attitudes on both sides of the Atlantic.

It is the issue of ad-blocking tools that should most bother website owners, because these make it very difficult to either track how much is being lost to them, or find ways to incentivise consumers to allow ads on their sites.

This of course is where our own ePrivacy software can help.  By giving people a choice about turning ad tracking on or off at the site level, it becomes possible to find ways to re-engage in a way that can differentially benefit one site over its competitors.

As has also been shown previously, consumers are also more likely to trust brands that give them a direct choice.  So actually giving visitors a simple opt-out that you can measure, and where you can build re-engagement incentives – something we have called Permission to Personalise, can decrease the chances of visitors going for an external blocking solution over which you will have no influence.

Recent Posts


January 13, 2017
Future of EU Cookie Compliance Webinar: ...

GDPR and now the proposed E-Privacy Regulation mean a stricter regime for cookie compliance, web governance and use of online tracking technologies. Join p...

View Article
Recent blog thumbnail
December 14, 2016
Draft EU ePrivacy Regulation Leaked...

A draft of the proposed legislation to replace the outdated EU ePrivacy Directive was leaked on the Politico.eu (PDF) website this week. The proposal is fo...

View Article
Recent blog thumbnail
November 3, 2016
GDPR Compliance Means Cookie Notices Mus...

Are you one of those people that ticked the cookie law box ages ago and not thought about it since? Well the game has changed and now is the time to re-vis...

View Article
Recent blog thumbnail
September 21, 2016
Optanon Acquired by OneTrust...

We are pleased to announce that Optanon, along with parent company Governor Technology, has been acquired by OneTrust....

View Article

Be in the Know

Subscribe to our newsletter

Onetrust All Rights Reserved