Mobile ads 'create few privacy fears'

The ad industry is bigging up a new report which claims smartphone users are far more worried about their financial details and texts being accessed from their phones than they are about their data being used for ads.
The study, conducted for the IAB by Kantar Media, quizzed over 2,000 smartphone owners aged 16 and over and found that just under half (46%) were concerned about their privacy while using a mobile device.
Just over half (54%) said they had taken measures to protect personal data on their phone with 50% of those deleting text messages and a further 45% erasing their browser history.
When participants were asked to rank how concerned they were about companies having access to different kinds of data, the top options cited were “mobile banking”, “text messages” and “emails”, while “anonymised info about Internet usage”, which is used for advertising, came in ninth out of ten options.
Just 23% opted out of sharing data with third parties, while 29% opted out of tailored marketing messages. This was reflected in the fact that 39% expected many mobile services to disappear without advertising, while 48% of 16- to 24- year-olds said they were happy to view relevant ads if it enabled a better quality of service.
However, awareness about data use was fairly low, according to the survey. Under half (44%) of those surveyed were aware that companies use data to serve content to them, and only 40% were aware that many mobile services (such as websites, search engines and apps) would disappear without advertising.
When asked in what circumstances they would feel comfortable receiving advertising by text, 73 per cent said that unsolicited advertising text messages were “completely unacceptable”, whereas only eight per cent thought texts from a trusted source or their network provider would be unacceptable.
IAB public policy manager Alex Scott said: “When it comes to mobile devices, privacy means a lot of different things in different contexts to people. From this research we also know that consumers are taking measures to address these specific privacy concerns themselves.
“However, the study also shows consumers crave clarity on data collection and what it’s used for. We have a collective responsibility to give consumers more control; as such we’re working to address transparency and control for mobile advertising privacy, to give consumers a consistent experience across devices.”

Mobile ads ‘create few privacy fears’

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