The billion-dollar industry of online advertising dominates all other forms of advertising by a wide margin. But there’s been a backlash against tech companies that harvest people’s data and how they can abuse it. Apple and Google have become more privacy-focused over the last year, and even Facebook is looking to change its ways.
Why is this happening now? People are just flat-out sick of having their data collected across the internet, no matter where they turn. Invisibly polled 2,240 internet users to find out more details.
An overwhelming 70% of respondents to the survey did not agree with companies tracking them for marketing purposes. After years of data breaches, who can blame them? But the intriguing part is what the alternative would look like.
Instead of simply being tracked in exchange for using a service, people would prefer to opt into ad tracking. Invisibly found that 75%—or three out of four respondents—said they preferred to be asked for consent before being tracked. Leading the way on this idea are Gen X and Gen Z, though Millennials and Baby Boomers aren’t far behind.
So could online advertising finally change for the better? Clearly, big tech is afraid of government regulation, so those companies are doing the work themselves. We’ll have to wait to see how things change, but for now you can check Apple’s Privacy Label, adjust Google’s privacy settings, and manage your Off-Facebook Activity.
