Where companies get their data matters to consumers: Survey

A recent Realtime Research survey commissioned by Invisibly shows that 3 out of 4 people want companies to only use consumer-consented data for advertising and targeting purposes.

The days of advertisers and big tech companies profiting from your data without your direct content may be coming to a close. A recent Realtime Research survey commissioned by Invisibly shows that 3 out of 4 people want companies to only use consumer-consented data for advertising and targeting purposes – that is, data that customers supply themselves and that they have full control over – not data collected from apps or behind the scenes.

Invisibly wondered how much people know about online ads in general, and how companies track and target people for advertising purposes.

Here’s what Invisibly learned:

  • 84% of respondents said that they know what browsing cookies are.
  • 75% of respondents said they “like” the idea of companies needing their consent to track them.
  • 70% of respondents don’t agree with companies tracking them for marketing purposes.
  • 44% of respondents said that they use an ad blocker to prevent companies from targeting them. Only 6% of people said they don’t use an ad blocker because they like ads targeting them.
  • Men were more knowledgeable of how online ads work than were women or non-binary respondents.

Invisibly asked people if they knew how internet browsing cookies work, to which 84% responded yes. The number of people who don’t know increased with the age of respondents, and men were 23% more aware than women.