TruEffect News
TruEffect finds Do Not Track a growing trend among U.S. consumers
TruEffect, an online advertising data and technology company, has been monitoring the number of browsers that have activated Do Not Track since late last year. It appears there is a definite trend regarding a growing desire among consumers to manage their own privacy. In the fourth quarter of 2011, TruEffect found that only 1% of browsers had turned on Do Not Track safeguards. In the first quarter of this year, that number had grown to 1.27%, and in the second quarter it grew to 2.1%.
TruEffect has just released this year’s third quarter data, which shows the incidence of Do Not Track has doubled to 4.3%. Martin Smith, TruEffect Vice President, says “People are no longer simply voicing their concerns, but are becoming proactive in taking steps to protect their privacy. Advertisers definitely need to pay attention.”
Trust-e, an online privacy company, recently announced results of research they conducted this year that found 60% of U.S. consumers are more concerned about their privacy this year than last. More alarming for marketers was that 35% of consumers said they have actually stopped doing business with some companies because of privacy concerns. The research also found that 70% of consumers feel online advertisers are somewhat or wholly responsible for protecting privacy.
Consumer sentiment can be confusing to advertisers. For example, research reported in eMarketer earlier this year indicated 50% of responders said they do want retailers where they shop to offer promotions and merchandising “tailored to my past purchasing and browsing behavior.” Smith notes, “There are two issues for most consumers. One, they don’t want their information from one business shared with others, and two, they are very concerned that a business’ data about them does not include personally identifiable information (PII).”
According to Trust-e, 3 out of 4 people now refuse to allow companies to share their information with a third party, while 1 in 2 say they have opted out of online behavioral advertising. Advertisers can gain consumer trust by not sharing their customer relationship data and by making their privacy polices well understood. “Customers value relevant, helpful online ads,” says Smith, “as long as that is the extent of how their data is used by an advertiser.”
About TruEffect
TruEffect (www.TruEffect.com) is a data and ad technology innovation company, specializing in First-Party data. Our patented technology platform gives advertisers and agencies unmatched improvement in display advertising performance and cost of performance. As the only company able to seamlessly deploy First-Party data web-wide, TruEffect offers audience targeting, audience measurement, audience data mobilization, and ad serving. TruEffect services are available on a hosted, managed, or licensed basis.
