Privacy Study [REPORT]

The ARF conducted its second annual Privacy Study among 1,100 American consumers during the week of March 26th, 2019. The first study was conducted during the week of May 28th, 2018. Both surveys were conducted using a Qualtrics online sample and platform and were weighted to U.S. population estimates for age, gender, and region.

Summary of Findings

The key differences between 2018 and 2019 are:

  •     People are spending more time on their mobile devices and less time on their PCs.
  •     People are spending more time checking email, banking, listening to music, buying things, playing games, and visiting social media via mobile apps.
  •     In general, people are only slightly less likely to share their data than last year.
  •     They are least likely to share their social security number; financial and medical information; and their home address and phone numbers.
  •     People seem to understand the benefits of personalized advertising, but do not value personalization highly and do not understand the technical approaches through which it is accomplished.
  •         Hispanics have a higher level of comprehension of the terms typically used in privacy statements compared to other groups.
  •     Trust has fallen for people with less than a high school education, especially trust in scientists. However, there are some significant differences in trust:
  •         Democrats and Asian Americans have increased their trust in Congress in contrast to Republicans, who have lost some trust in Congress.
  •         Democrats and Asian Americans also have the greatest trust in the media and television news.
  •         Baby Boomers, Republicans, and Whites are most likely to trust their local police.

In addition, the implications of these findings are reviewed in light of the California Consumer Protection Act and similar potential state legislation. The key implication for the marketing industry: participants did not indicate a higher likelihood of sharing data if they would receive more personalized advertising as a result.  That said, it is possible that this finding was affected by the need to ask the same question twice.

To download report CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

 

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