US Consumers Clueless About Online Tracking

Arashtamere writes "A study on consumer perceptions about online privacy, undertaken by the Samuelson Clinic at the University of California and the Annenberg Public Policy Center, found that the average American consumer is largely unaware that every move they make online can be, and often is, tracked by online marketers and advertising networks. Those surveyed showed little knowledge on the extent to which online tracking is happening or how the information obtained can be used. More than half of those surveyed — about 55 percent — falsely assumed that a company's privacy polices prohibited it from sharing their addresses and purchases with affiliated companies. Nearly four out of 10 online shoppers falsely believed that a company's privacy policy prohibits it from using information to analyze an individuals' activities online. And a similar number assumed that an online privacy policy meant that a company they're doing business with wouldn't collect data on their online activities and combine it with other information to create a behavioral profile."

US consumers are clueless about technology

[webmaster404]

US consumers are clueless about technology in general. If you would ask the average person if they know simple computer concepts such as partitioning and operating systems they are clueless, never mind how the Internet works. Many times, I have been malevolent tech support (face it, we all have had to fill that role) and people couldn't tell me what the operating system they were running was! They were even more clueless about the processor they were running despite a bold sticker telling you on your computer case. So how can consumers be assumed to know a thing about the internet when most can't even tell you what OS they are running.

Re:U. S. Consumers Clueless ...

[feepness]

US Consumers Clueless. There, fixed it for you.

Consumers Clueless

There, fixed it for you without being a troll.

My worst offender? ACLU!

[mi]

When donating them money in 2006, I specified a "special" address, which contained "from ACLU" in the "Line 1" of the address. The actual address went to "Line 2" of their form. I do this with all establishments I'm dealing with — just in case.

A month or so later invitations to subscribe to "The Nation" (a disgusting uber-Left rag) started showing up bearing the "from ACLU" address...

Now, I expected the ACLU to be bi-partisan — and concerned with my privacy. Asking me for money the next year is fair game. But sharing my info with other — completely unrelated — organizations? Very disappointing...

Somehow, nothing but parcels from Amazon has shown up bearing the "from Amazon" address.

Re:i keep waiting for the day

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess you didn't read the article?

Yeah, yeah, I know it's slashdot and all...

The study found that people do actually care. Their behavior is not due to not caring about the tracking that is going on but being completely ignorant that there is any tracking at all going on.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:No Real Surprise

[pete6677]

Better yet, how many people think privacy policies actually mean anything? Ever read one? The whole thing contradicts itself in so much legalese. It states that your information won't be given out, and then describes exactly how it will be given out (to anyone who pays for it).

AT&T + NSA 0wns all your bases!

[Adeptus_Luminati]

Privacy Policy or no privacy policy... if you have been surfing US sites in the past few years, the dept of Home Land Security tracked all (and I mean ALL) your information.

References:
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-aQ_o_yi-s [youtube.com]
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWW09xzJfS0 [youtube.com]
3) http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm [usatoday.com]
4) http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2006/06/the_newbies_gui.html?entry_id=1510938 [wired.com]

Re:Not just online tracking...

[scribblej]

I am in the credit-card processing business.

I can tell you that as popular as this myth is, VISA is not generally able to track what you purchase. Generally, all they know is where you shopped and how much you spent, not what individual items you spent on.

The nearest there is to an exception to this is in hotels and fleet card purchases -- in the case of Hotels, VISA gets a breakdown of what money was spent on the room vs the room service vs the hotel lobby store, etc. Still doesn't know what actual items were purchased, but they do get told your check-in and check-out dates and some other things. For fleet card they might get told how many gallons of gas you purchased, but that's about it.

I know, I grew up thinking VISA was watching me, too, but it turns out it's just not watching that closesly. It doesn't have the capability; the protocols whereby credit card information are transferred just don't have any specification for that level of reporting.