One of the biggest debates of the past year or two has been around whether or not companies should be tracking users for the purposes of obtaining data on them that they can then use to show said users targeted ads. Apple has gone on the offensive against tracking done by apps because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up giving their users a bit more security and privacy but this has raised the question of whether or not the ad industry remains sustainable as well as what the opinions of the users themselves are on this type of thing.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Invisibly recently conducted a survey that sought to shed some light on the opinions of the consumers themselves. It turns out that 70% of 2,240 people that were surveyed said that they didn’t like the ideas of companies and marketing agencies tracking them at all. This indicates that what Apple did was in the interests of the consumers, and that marketing agencies can’t keep relying on data that consumers simply don’t want to give them.
The data also suggested that the average consumer is a bit more savvy about how they might be tracked than many would initially realize. 84% of the people that responded to this survey indicated knowledge of what cookies are and how they might be used to track them, and 75% said that they would much prefer it if a company had to obtain their consent before starting to track them for any reason at all. This further shows that a paradigm shift needs to occur through which companies can end up getting the information they need to market to their potential consumers and customers.
People also seem to be taking matters into their own hands, as just under half of respondents, 44% to be precise, said that they used an ad blocker. The reason for them using this ad blocker was to prevent getting tracked online, which means that this is an issue that seems pressing to the average consumer and they are looking for ways in which they can go about protecting themselves from it.
Another important statistic was that only 6% of respondents said that they didn’t use an ad blocker for the specific reason that they liked being tracked and getting targeted ads, so even if this wasn’t something that seemed unpleasant to consumers it’s most definitely not something that the vast majority of them like all that much.
An interesting thing to note about these responses is that for the most part they had a tendency for being at the very least somewhat consistent regardless of things like age or ethnicity. Hence, concerns about privacy and being tracked by companies for marketing purposes appears to be rather universal, to the point where virtually everyone is agreeing on it even if they might disagree on a wide range of other issues.
That said, people between the ages of 25-40 seemed to be the most amenable to being tracked. 32% of them did not think that being tracked was all that bad, and on top of all of that only 56% seemed to take issue with it with the rest saying that they did not care either way. This might suggest that various marketing organizations would start to target individuals that belong to this demographic since they would be at the very least somewhat more likely to consent to tracking in the first place. This shows just how much the marketing industry is going to have to change if it wants any chance of surviving in this new world that we are all living in.
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With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Invisibly recently conducted a survey that sought to shed some light on the opinions of the consumers themselves. It turns out that 70% of 2,240 people that were surveyed said that they didn’t like the ideas of companies and marketing agencies tracking them at all. This indicates that what Apple did was in the interests of the consumers, and that marketing agencies can’t keep relying on data that consumers simply don’t want to give them.
The data also suggested that the average consumer is a bit more savvy about how they might be tracked than many would initially realize. 84% of the people that responded to this survey indicated knowledge of what cookies are and how they might be used to track them, and 75% said that they would much prefer it if a company had to obtain their consent before starting to track them for any reason at all. This further shows that a paradigm shift needs to occur through which companies can end up getting the information they need to market to their potential consumers and customers.
People also seem to be taking matters into their own hands, as just under half of respondents, 44% to be precise, said that they used an ad blocker. The reason for them using this ad blocker was to prevent getting tracked online, which means that this is an issue that seems pressing to the average consumer and they are looking for ways in which they can go about protecting themselves from it.
Another important statistic was that only 6% of respondents said that they didn’t use an ad blocker for the specific reason that they liked being tracked and getting targeted ads, so even if this wasn’t something that seemed unpleasant to consumers it’s most definitely not something that the vast majority of them like all that much.
An interesting thing to note about these responses is that for the most part they had a tendency for being at the very least somewhat consistent regardless of things like age or ethnicity. Hence, concerns about privacy and being tracked by companies for marketing purposes appears to be rather universal, to the point where virtually everyone is agreeing on it even if they might disagree on a wide range of other issues.
That said, people between the ages of 25-40 seemed to be the most amenable to being tracked. 32% of them did not think that being tracked was all that bad, and on top of all of that only 56% seemed to take issue with it with the rest saying that they did not care either way. This might suggest that various marketing organizations would start to target individuals that belong to this demographic since they would be at the very least somewhat more likely to consent to tracking in the first place. This shows just how much the marketing industry is going to have to change if it wants any chance of surviving in this new world that we are all living in.
