By Lara Hertel
TORONTO (Reuters) -
Many people are uncomfortable with Web
sites customizing content to people's personal profiles,
according to a new survey.
"There's a creepy factor and a fear of the unknown that
people don't want to deal with," said Michelle Warren, senior
research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group in London,
Ontario.
"The notion that there's a privacy issue in someone's email
account hits a little too close to home for some," she added.
Nearly 60 percent of 2,513 people in the United States
questioned in a Harris Interactive poll said they were uneasy
when Web sites use information about personal online activity
to tailor advertisements or content.
The findings may pave the way for web giants to offer users
more tangible benefits in exchange for lost privacy, such as
discounts on movies, music and electronics, said Dr. Alan
Westin, of Columbia University in New York, who helped to
design the poll.
"Free search engines or social networking sites are encoded
on web user's DNA, and one way to defend behavioral marketing
is to sweeten its benefits to users," Westin said in an
interview.
While privacy boundaries aren't forcing web users to
boycott popular Web applications just yet, that may change as
users begin to understand the extent to which their personal
details are being used.
"What happens is people suddenly realize they've put out
enough personal information to get served with a targeted
advertisement, and the Web makes the transition from
convenience to creepiness," said Colin McKay, of the Office of
the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in Ottawa.
The survey showed that younger users are more comfortable
with the customized web content, with people aged 18-43 leading
the pack.
As a whole, web users' comfort was increased only slightly
when asked to consider potential safeguards that would improve
web privacy policies and procedures.
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