Blase Ur
Pedro Giovanni Leon
Lorrie Faith Cranor
Richard Shay
ABSTRACT
We report results of 48 semi-structured interviews about online behavioral advertising (OBA). We investigated non-technical users' attitudes about and understanding of OBA, using participants' expectations and beliefs to explain their attitudes. Participants found OBA to be simultaneously useful and privacy invasive. They were surprised to learn that browsing history is currently used to tailor advertisements, yet they were aware of contextual targeting.
Our results identify mismatches between participants' mental models and current approaches for providing users with notice and choice about OBA. Participants misinterpreted icons intended to notify them about behavioral targeting and expected that they could turn to their browser or antivirus software to control OBA. Participants had strong concerns about data collection, and the majority of participants believed that advertisers collect personally identifiable information. They also misunderstood the role of advertising networks, basing their opinions of an advertising network on that company's non-advertising activities. Participants' attitudes towards OBA were complex and context-dependent. While many participants felt tailored advertising could benefit them, existing notice and choice mechanisms are not effectively reaching users.
- AVG. What is tracking and AVG do not track? http://www.avg.com/ww-en/do-not-track, 2012.Google Scholar
- R. Balebako, P. Leon, R. Shay, B. Ur, Y. Wang, and L. Cranor. Measuring the effectiveness of privacy tools for limiting behavioral advertising. Web 2.0 Security and Privacy Workshop, May 2012.Google Scholar
- H. Beales. The value of behavioral targeting. Technical report, The Netwok Advertising Initiative http://www.networkadvertising.org/pdfs/Beales_NAI_Study.pdf, 2010.Google Scholar
- D. Campbell and R. Wright. Shut-up I don't care: Understanding the role of relevance and interactivity on customer attitudes toward repetitive online advertising. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 9(1):62--76, 2008.Google Scholar
- DAA. Advertising option icon application. http://www.aboutads.info/participants/icon/. Last accessed June 2012.Google Scholar
- Digital Advertising Alliance. Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising. http://www.aboutads.info/resource/download/seven-principles-07-01-09.pdf, July 2009.Google Scholar
- P. Eckersley. How unique is your web browser? EFF report, Electronic Frontier Foudation, 2009.Google Scholar
- A. Farahat and M. Bailey. How effective is targeted advertising? WWW 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Federal Trade Commission. Self-regulatory principles for online behavioral advertising. http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/02/P085400behavadreport.pdf, 2009.Google Scholar
- Federal Trade Commission. Protecting consumer privacy in an era of rapid change, March 2012.Google Scholar
- M. Hastak and M. J. Culnan. Online behavioral advertising "icon" study. http://futureofprivacy.org/final_report.pdf, January 2010. Unpublished Report.Google Scholar
- S. Komanduri, R. Shay, G. Norcie, and L. F. Cranor. AdChoices? compliance with online behavioral advertising notice and choice requirements. CyLab technical report, Carnegie Mellon University, www.cylab.cmu.edu/files/pdfs/tech_reports/CMUCyLab11005.pdf, 2011.Google Scholar
- P. Kosmala. Yes, Johnny can benefit from transparency and control. DAA Blog, http://www.aboutads.info/blog/yes-johnny-canbenefit-transparency-and-control, October 2011, Retrieved November 2011.Google Scholar
- KPMG International. The converged lifestlye. http://www.kpmg.com/convergence, 2011.Google Scholar
- B. Krishnamurthy and C. Wills. Privacy diffusion on the web: a longitudinal perspective. WWW 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. W. Lendenmann. Consumer perspectives on online advertising. Technical report, Preference Central http://www.slideshare.net/mfredactie/preference-central-surveyfullreport, 2010.Google Scholar
- P. G. Leon, B. Ur, R. Balebako, L. F. Cranor, R. Shay, and Y. Wang. Why Johnny can't opt out: A usability evaluation of tools to limit online behavioral advertising. CHI 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
- J. Mayer and J. Mitchell. Third-party web tracking: Policy and technology. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2012. Google ScholarDigital Library
- S. McCoy, A. Everard, P. Polak, and D. Galletta. The effects of online advertising. Communications of the ACM, 50(3):84--88, 2007. Google ScholarDigital Library
- A. M. McDonald and L. F. Cranor. Beliefs and behaviors: Internet users' understanding of behavioral advertising. TPRC 2010.Google Scholar
- NAI. Advertising Option Icon application. http://www.aboutads.info/participants/icon/, Retrieved March 2012.Google Scholar
- NAI. FAQs. http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/faqs.asp. Last accessed June 2012.Google Scholar
- NAI. Learn about online behavioral advertising, privacy, cookies, and how this all works! http://networkadvertising.org/managing/learn_more.asp, Retrieved November 2011.Google Scholar
- NAI. 2008 NAI Principles: The Network Advertising Initiative's Self-Regulatory Code of Conduct. http://www.networkadvertising.org/networks/2008NAIPrinciplesfinalforWebsite.pdf, 2008.Google Scholar
- H. Nissenbaum. Privacy as contextual integrity. Washington Law Review, 79(1), 2004.Google Scholar
- K. Purcell, J. Brenner, and L. Rainie. Search engine use 2012. Technical report, March 2012.Google Scholar
- R. Rettie, H. Robinson, and B. Jenner. Does Internet advertising alienate users? Occasional Paper Series, (52), 2003.Google Scholar
- S. Rodgers. The interactive advertising model tested: The role of Internet motives in ad processing. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 2(2):22--33, 2002.Google ScholarCross Ref
- V. Toubiana and V. Verdot. Show me your cookie and I will tell you who you are. Technical report, arXiv.org, http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.5864, August 2011.Google Scholar
- TRUSTe. 2011 consumer research results: Privacy and online behavioral advertising. http://www.truste.com/adprivacy/TRUSTe-2011-Consumer-Behavioral-Advertising-Survey-Results.pdf, July 2011.Google Scholar
- J. Turow, J. King, C. J. Hoofnagle, A. Bleakley, and M. Hennessy. Americans reject tailored advertising and three activities that enable it. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1478214, 2009.Google Scholar
- T. Vega. Ad group unveils plan to improve web privacy. New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/business/media/04privacy.html, October 2010, retrieved March 2011.Google Scholar
- Yahoo! Press Release. Yahoo! announces global implementation of Do Not Track (DNT). http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/29/idUS104733+29-Mar-2012+BW20120329, March 2012.Google Scholar
- J. Yan, N. Liu, G. Wang, W. Zhang, Y. Jiang, and Z. Chen. How much can behavioral targeting help online advertising? WWW 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Smart, useful, scary, creepy: perceptions of online behavioral advertising
Recommendations
Why Johnny can't opt out: a usability evaluation of tools to limit online behavioral advertising
CHI '12: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsWe present results of a 45-participant laboratory study investigating the usability of nine tools to limit online behavioral advertising (OBA). We interviewed participants about OBA and recorded their behavior and attitudes as they configured and used a ...
What matters to users?: factors that affect users' willingness to share information with online advertisers
SOUPS '13: Proceedings of the Ninth Symposium on Usable Privacy and SecurityMuch of the debate surrounding online behavioral advertising (OBA) has centered on how to provide users with notice and choice. An important element left unexplored is how advertising companies' privacy practices affect users' attitudes toward data ...
Scheme of User Privacy Protection Applied to Online Marketing
TRUSTCOM '13: Proceedings of the 2013 12th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and CommunicationsResearch has shown the incredible evolution of mobile marketing and, on the other hand, has also revealed that email marketing is still widely used. Online marketing has evolved considerably in recent times and is becoming a key for companies wishing to ...
Comments