Most Americans, however, do understand that what companies know about their online behaviors might harm them. On Tuesday, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania released its report on the Fall 2022 study, saying that the researchers’ goal was “to determine if current ‘informed consent’ practices are working online.” U.S. federal and state laws — as well as decisions made by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — require user permission to opt in or out where consent is concerned. However, researchers said that informed consent at scale is a myth. “Genuine opt out and opt in consent requires that people have knowledge about commercial data-extraction practices as well as a belief they can do something about them,” researchers said. Researchers said their aim is to “flip the script” on current corporate practices and suggest the advertising-based model be converted to “contextual advertising,” which limits companies’ targeting of users to environment-only, removing the need to collect individual behavioral data online.
Americans Think They Can’t Influence Data Collection Policies
According to the researchers, a large portion of those surveyed — about 80 percent — is aware that the data collected about them can cause them harm, while also being frustrated over the lack of control they have over their data. Researchers added that many concepts like consent, biometrics, and VPNs confuse many Americans. “High percentages of Americans don’t know, admit they don’t know, and believe they can’t do anything about basic practices and policies around companies’ use of people’s data,” researchers said. 56 percent of American adults do not understand what “privacy policy” means, other than it means that a company will not share their data without consent. “In actual fact, many of these policies state that a company can share or sell any data it gathers about site visitors with other websites and companies,” researchers noted. A similar survey conducted in Canada by Interac, reported in January, revealed the majority of Canadians are concerned about their online privacy and that they want more control over their data. However, Canadians seem more informed about what tracking is and hold organizations directly accountable for protecting their data.
Survey Asked U.S. Adults 17 True or False Questions
Researchers gave 17 true or false statements regarding privacy and digital marketing policy to participants. Only one person in the full sample of people answered 94 percent of the 17 questions correctly. 77 percent of those surveyed answered a maximum of nine questions correctly, researchers noted. Some of the true or false statements with responses are listed below. Bold denotes the correct answer. You can view the Annenberg School for Communication’s full report on the University of Pennsylvania’s website.
Insights Into American’s Digital Knowledge
The survey showed that one in three Americans know that online stores can charge different prices depending on their locations. At the same time, over eight in ten believe HIPAA stops apps from selling user health data to marketers. Furthermore, less than half of Americans realize that Facebook user privacy settings can help limit personal data shared with advertisers. Joseph Turow, one of the researchers, said that there is an air of resignation when it comes to Americans’ digital knowledge. “This belief that control is out of your hands and that it’s pointless to try and change the situation is called resignation,” he said, adding that most Americans accept “living in a world where marketers taking and using your data is inevitable.” When compared to Turow’s 2015 research sample, 74 percent of Americans are now “resigned” regarding privacy intrusion. In 2015, this figure was 58 percent.
Data Collection is Out of Hand, Turow Says
Turow worries that the government’s delay in properly regulating how companies and Big Data use personal information will only make it harder for users to control it in the future. Worse yet, a research paper by Radboud University, the University of Lausanne, and KU Leuven in June 2022 revealed trackers exfiltrate passwords to other analytics, tracking, and marketing domains even when a user does not hit “submit.” Furthermore, that study noted that consent boxes are ineffective in preventing tracking and data collection. “We live in a society where there’s a sea of data collected about individuals that people don’t understand, know they don’t understand, are distrustful of, resigned to and believe can harm them,” Turow said. “For about 30 years, big companies have been allowed to shape a whole environment for us, essentially without our permission,” he added. “And 30 years from now, it might be too late to say, ‘This is totally unacceptable.’” The U.S. is yet to enforce an all-encompassing data protection and regulation law like the EU’s GDPR. For instance, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is closest to the GDPR. However, U.S. companies are finding it difficult to meet the requirements. For more in-depth information about online data collection, read our article on Big Data and privacy.
