PubMatic: Consumers Confused About Online Tracking

PubMatic will release a study Monday that finds Internet users are more accepting of anonymous data collection when they understand how advertisers use it.

The paper, Audience Selling for Publishers, reveals that most consumers don't understand that interest-based advertising is anonymous. When survey participants -- about 500 people -- were asked if they knew some of their online behavior might be tracked for advertising purposes, 71% acknowledged that they knew. But when asked if they knew the online data collected about them for the purpose of advertising was anonymous, only 40% understood knew. Eric Klotz, PubMatic vice president of marketing, hopes the study serves as a wake-up call to the industry. "Everyone knows the user's privacy is paramount and that we provide a service to them," he says. "Understanding the how and the why changes everything."