Despite Digital Privacy Uproar, Consumers Are Not Opting Out

Advertisers' fears that, given the chance, consumers would opt out of behaviorally targeted advertising en masse appear to be vastly overblown -- but don't mistake that for thinking they don't care about privacy.

Since last year, ad organizations in the U.S. have been running a campaign meant to stiff-arm regulatory efforts of the sort that went into effect last week in Europe, where companies will now have to get permission from consumers before dropping cookies onto their computers. The centerpiece of the campaign to convince Congress and the FTC that self-regulation is good enough is the "Ad Option Icon" placed in some ads, pointing to information about behavioral targeting and offering a way to opt out of it. Thus far it's received relatively low response, a rare case where low click-through on an ad is positioned as a positive thing. The click-through rate is just 0.002% and of those people who do follow the link, only 10% opt out of the ads, according to DoubleVerify, which recently won a contract from the industry trade group to license the icon for ad clients. Two other companies, Evidon and TRUSTe, also provide the service. Evidon, which has the longest set of data, is seeing click-through of 0.005% with only 2% opting out from 30 billion impressions. But the low rates alone don't mean consumers aren't interested in the issue of how companies are monitoring and using their online behavior. After all, click rates on display ads are generally low, often well under 1% depending on the product category, the audience and the kind of website.