Smart, Useful, Scary, Creepy:

1. Smart, Useful, Scary, Creepy: Perceptions of Online Behavioral Advertising

3. Privacy Concerns • OBA = Online Behavioral Advertising • According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission: • Data collection can be sneaky • Privacy notices are not easy to understand • User profiles are potentially too detailed • Could be uniquely identifiable • Profiles could contain sensitive data • Info about health, finances, children

4. Problems • Users do not understand how OBA works • Many misconceptions about how and what data is collected • Misunderstand the role of advertising networks • Users are unaware of the control they have over their own privacy regarding OBA • Users misinterpret the warning signs of OBA • Users misconstrue how to control the monitoring of their behavior • Solution: • Understand how internet consumers perceive OBA to better inform them and protect their privacy by employing more effective Notice and Choice mechanisms

5. What OBA Is and How It Works • Goal: • to construct a profile of an Internet user using his or her browsing habits used in targeted advertising • Data: • visible content from the site a user is visiting explicitly, and invisible content from a third-party that has a relationship with the visited website • Third parties: • advertising networks, analytics companies, social networks • How: • A cookie identifies a user across partner sites to track browsing history

6. Users’ Impressions of Internet Advertising • Negative: • Annoying, unnecessary, distracting, interfering • Associated with pop-ups • Unfounded fears • Useful: • Helped users find new products • Helps fund free services

7. Users’ Impressions on How OBA Works • Based on browsing history and web searches • Hoped actual monitoring is hypothetical • Some aware of cookies but don’t understand details • Believed data like purchase history could be bought • Some thought that interaction with the ad was necessary • Targeted advertising only happens on websites like Facebook, Gmail, or Amazon • Customization is good • Privacy invasion is bad

8. OBA Icons • Goal: inform users that their data is being collected • Users’ perceptions • Many had never seen the icons before, even when shown in context with advertisements • Some felt that icons meant “internet based ads” or represented “great deals online” • No one realized what the icons were actually trying to tell them • Some thought they allowed users to choose what type of ads they would receive • Some thought that clicking on the icon would let them tell the advertisers about their interests, perhaps providing a list of subjects

9. OBA Icons continued… • Users’ perceptions • Solicited companies to buy an ad • Clicking would lead to pop-ups • Clicking would yield more information about currently advertised product or expand the advertisement • Clicking would allow advertisers to track the user • Meant to legitimize the ad and distinguish it from the page content • Result: ineffective

10. Users’ OBA Pros After being informed, users concluded: • Help users find things they are interested in • Provide a more relevant and interesting internet experience • Help users save money by finding deals • Advertisers can make more money by targeting the right users • Website that host OBA can make more money

11. Users’ OBA Cons After being informed, users concluded: • The idea that they could be monitored is creepy • Concerning that this observation is silent • Uncomfortable that third parties put “things” on their computers without explicit permission • Offended by being stereotyped by advertisers because online activity is not an accurate representation of a person • Ex: research

12. Users’ OBA Cons continued… • Uncomfortable that clicking something on accident or someone else using their computer is included in their profile • Insecure: what else can people learn about them through their computers? • Many believed that advertisers have access to personally identifiable information which can be given to another party and/or used maliciously • Equivalent to someone following you around watching everything you do • Changes your behavior if you know you’re being watched

13. Who Does the Collecting Matters • Familiar company Google vs. unfamiliar company BlueKai • Users trust that Google is not mal-intentioned • A company with too much user information • Google collecting info can help in search but need to be careful when drawing the line because they also manage email and documents • Reputation as a viable corporation • Yahoo and AOL not trustworthy because they are not as financially stable and may do unpredictable things with users’ data in desperation • Microsoft is untrustworthy because people don’t like their products

14. Users’ Methods to Stop OBA • Delete browsing history: cookies and cache • Depend on computer security tools • anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, firewalls, proxies, Linux • Web browser should support controlling OBA • Private browsing • Unaware of plugins or specific software • Ignore the ads • Ad-blocking software, unsubscribing from emails • Never clicking on ads • Websites should be able to stop OBA • Unsure if they exist but they should oversee online marketing • None were aware of self-regulatory websites, opt-out programs, or “Do Not Track”

15. Users’ Conclusions • Mixed bag • OBA can help users find deals when planning a vacation, but advertisers can know when the consumers aren’t home • OBA is okay situationally • Reading the news vs. researching STD symptoms • Desired solutions • Less distracting and interfering advertising • Explicit user feedback: Have companies inquire about user interests as opposed to collecting user behavior • More awareness of how everything works

16. Notice and Choice • Industry self-regulation • Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) • Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) • Goal: give users notice about OBA and the choice to opt-out so they have more control over their privacy • DAA principles: • Consumer Control • Opt-out of targeted advertisements • Transparency • Advertising option icon

17. More Effective Notice and Choice • Better communicate that icons and text signals are meant for customers and are not solicitations for advertisers • Change location so that icon does not seem like part of the ad that could provide more information • Give users more choices to meet their expectations • Users believed that they could make choices about the types of ads they could receive, and they should be able to specify interest categories or correct incorrect profiles • Create different opt-out methods or better inform users about current opt-out methods • Many believed in simply deleting their cookies, but that would actually counteract opt-out cookie mechanisms • Current methods, such as clicking on the icon or visiting another website, are counterintuitive

18. Ad Choices

19. More Effective Notice and Choice cont… • Better inform users of how tracking occurs whether or not they interact with the advertisement • Users instinctively avoid clicking on ads to avoid being tracked, but that is currently how they can control OBA • Emphasize the difference between security and privacy • Inform users that OBA is not related to viruses • Stress the difference between company services and advertising • The Windows OS is different from Microsoft Advertising, so users should not make decisions based on companies’ products. • Allow for more situational OBA • OBA can be more or less appropriate depending on the browsing context, for both privacy reasons and usefulness. • Users should be able to specify which topics are available for data collection. • Encourage browsers to meet user expectation or make users aware of current browser tools

20. Conclusion • Most users are partially or fully against OBA • “smart but creepy” • OBA is not as dangerous as users think it is • Attitudes influenced by: • Incorrect assumptions of what and how much data is collected • Misunderstanding of the parties involved in OBA and how they operate • Misconstruing the profiling technology • Current notice and choice methods are failing • Users should be properly informed of the practice of tailoring advertising • Users should be aware of how to control OBA • Current methods to control OBA are limited and difficult to use • Users’ understanding of OBA need to be considered in notice and choice mechanisms