US Consumers Clueless About Online Tracking 228
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."
U. S. Consumers Clueless ... (Score:2, Interesting)
>" US Consumers Clueless About Online Tracking"
US Consumers Clueless.
There, fixed it for you.
Really, its not just online tracking ... there are SO many things, from food packaging and labeling to software to car mileage figures to taxes to rights.
Re:Disclaimers aside... (Score:5, Interesting)
In Canada ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Slashbots Arrogant (Score:3, Interesting)
> It's funny how the slashbots think they're so superior and more intelligent than the general public.
I've spent enough time explaining to others the difference between sugar water labeled "Orange Drink" and real orange juice. Has nothing to do with intelligence, just healthy cynicism and a knowledge of some of the restrictions on labeling which have appeared in the media.
> Meanwhile you people go apeshit over the latest Apple product, Intel processor or Linux gadget.
Sorry, but I don't own a single Apple product, and never have. My current cpu is an AMD Sempron 2600 that's on its second motherboard (I don't need the "latest and greatest" - let others pay the premium). Linux gadget? I guess the set-top box qualifies ... all my boxes run linux, so okay, I'll give you that one.
> Stop being so smug and arrogant, and you might be able to get laid for once in your life.
Come on, do you expect me to believe the stork brought my kids into the world?
Look, the fact is that a lot of the consumers out there ARE stupid. They buy stuff they don't even really want. Look at all the phoney claims for shampoos - "the science of silkience - scanner photography reveals blah blah blah ..." "Red bull gives you wings!" Yeah, right, whatever ... but it got people to buy it.
Re:Disclaimers aside... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm probably still being tracked its just that the amount of tracking info is limited to 1 session. The irritating thing tends to be the targeted crap ads that crash the browser or the flash ads that randomly expand to cover most of the screen, with a nonstandard way of closing them.
I'd like a opt out list, I'm not hopeful, as I wouldn't trust such a set up to begin with.
Re:Firefox plugin to scramble marketers' cookies? (Score:3, Interesting)
No. But Firefox will let you block the cookies, or automatically erase them when you leave the program. And you can get the TrackMeNot plugin, which makes random searches on different search engines, so that when they pull your record up to see what you've been searching for, the real searches will be lost in the noise.
Re:These people vote! (Score:2, Interesting)
fascism is characterized by placing the state and corporations over human rights.
meritocracy involve only allowing credentialed experts in a given field to craft policy for that field, cutting out clueless morons and parties like corporations who are by their very nature amoral and psychopathic, etc.
yes, the concept is flawed, but at the same time it's not really any more flawed than the concept of representative democratic republics.
I honestly think that will be the next form of government once governments like the US topple from the burden of self-interested policies and people voting to give themselves money from the treasury.
You can't make people use encryption by default (Score:3, Interesting)
Look at the way SSL is mis-used almost constantly across the web. Even most "techies" don't get it because the concepts are counter-intuitive (even if very simple). SSL certificates and CAs were created to ensure that the domain name you typed-in is the real holder of that domain name. But techies generally think that SSL certs were supposed to validate a site's overall identity or business ethics, and they "know" that SSL has "failed" at this, and so they generally omit it (or slag it) instead of properly evangelizing it.
The product of this misunderstanding: Web users who never bother to check the domain name in the address bar when the lock appears in their browser (if they look for the lock at all). That is how they get phished. There is a reason why the lock appears in the address bar, because it validates that you are connected with the real holder of that address. Whether the people at that address are 'nice', or whether 'ba.com' really stands for your bank is fundamentally up to the user to verify... like getting the phone number of your bank from the back of your credit card or from a bank statement instead of that nice flyer that someone stuffed in your mailbox.
To have computers check credentials for you would entail turning the Internet into a repressive regime where a central authority tells you who what it thinks is "good, shady or bad". And requiring it for all access would probably move it into the 'opressive' category.
Be very careful what you wish for here.