Fears that the marketing industry is alienating consumers by riding roughshod over their personal data appear somewhat wide of the mark, with Internet users only prepared to pay a few pence a week for their data not to be collected and used for advertising by the likes of Google and Facebook.
According to a new Which? study, many people say they are uncomfortable about the amount of personal data that is collected about them while online, and want to have greater control over its collection and use, yet most are not prepared to put their hands in their pockets to prevent it.
Alongside Accent and PJM Economics, Which? calculated the value consumers would put on being able to block targeted ads entirely, or the alternative of receiving a reward for seeing them.
It found that while many people are concerned about sharing their personal data, most are open to seeing targeted ads – particularly, surprise, surprise, if they come with the offer of a payment or other financial incentive, such as an Amazon voucher.
Given a hypothetical choice of receiving targeted ads or paying to receive generic ads, respondents told Which? they would be prepared to pay an average of £1.09 a month – less than 4p a day – to only receive generic ads and for their data not to be collected.
However, it seems that this was not really the result that Which? was seeking so it extrapolated that figure for all UK users of Google and Facebook and came up with the far more palatable figure – for its purposes anyway – of £1.1bn a year.
When asked to choose between generic ads or targeted ads and receiving a monthly reward, the average respondent said they would need to receive rewards worth £4.03 per month to choose targeted ads. Extrapolated across the UK, this gives an annual total estimated value of £4.21bn.
In the absence of any financial incentive, only a quarter (27%) of Google and Facebook users said they would prefer to receive targeted ads, but when a financial incentive was added, that figure went up to four-fifths (81%).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the survey found the larger the financial reward, the more likely consumers were to choose targeted ads, which just goes to prove what everyone has known for years – there is nothing more popular than free money.
Related stories
‘Advertising’s value exchange is broken; adapt or die’
Consumers say they would exchange data to stop ads
Brands warned against email and social bombardment
Brands urged take advertising MOT to combat public ire
Brands urged to ‘do the right thing’ over data privacy
Spooner on…how to bring back trust in advertising
AI to make agencies lean, keen and driven by machine