Poll: Americans strongly oppose publicacy & expect online privacy -- Part XVI Privacy-Publicacy Series

Americans expect dramatically more privacy online than they currently have; that is the essence of the findings of an outstanding new independent study led by Professor Joseph Turow of the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania entitled: "Americans Reject Tailored Advertising." The study/poll found:

• 86% of young adults say they don’t want tailored advertising if it is the result of following their behavior on websites other than one they are visiting, and 90% of them reject it if it is the result of following what they do offline.
• 69% of American adults feel there should be a law that gives people the right to know everything that a website knows about them.
• 92% agree there should be a law that requires “websites and advertising companies to delete all stored information about an individual, if requested to do so.”

This study strongly validates the findings of an important Consumer Reports Survey from last September: "Consumer Reports Poll: Americans Extremely Concerned About Internet Privacy: Most Consumers Want More Control Over How Their Online Information Is Collected & Used."

• That survey found: "The poll revealed that 93 percent of Americans think internet companies should always ask for permission before using personal information and 72 percent want the right to opt out when companies track their online behavior."

Web 2.0 publicacy proponents have a big problem. ("Publicacy" is the opposite of privacy.)

• The new study suggests that the pervasive publicacy practice to collect whatever private information one can get away with:
  • Is a big overreach by industry;
  • Does not have the support of the American public; and
  • Is obviously not fair representation.  

Americans have been misled to believe that their privacy has been respected online, when the reality is the opposite.

• It is ironic that the Web 2.0 movement claims to be consumer-friendly and "grass roots" because the overwhelming evidence is that the average American does not want their publicacy, but their own privacy.

In conclusion, what's needed is a consumer-centric privacy policy that puts consumers in control of their own private information so that can chose themselves whether they want to exploit it or protect it. This is what I recommended in my June testimony before the House Internet Subcommittees: 

• “Why A Consumer-Driven, Technology/Competition-Neutral, Privacy Framework Is Superior to a Default ‘Finders Keepers Losers Weepers’ Privacy Framework"

Privacy-Publicacy Faultline Series here:

• Part I: The Growing Privacy-Publicacy Fault-line -- The Tension Underneath World Data Privacy Day 
• Part II: Implications of User Location Tracking
• Part III: Extreme Publicacy -- Does Privacy Stand a Chance?
• Part VI: Why FTC’s Behavioral-Ad Principles Are a Big Deal
• Part V: Privacy prevailed in Facebook's privacy-publicacy earthquake
• Part VI: Do People Own Their Private Information Online?  
• Part VII: Where is the line between privacy and publicacy? 
• Part VIII: "Privacy is Over"
• Part IX: "Interventional Targeting? "Get into people's heads" 
• Part X: "Latest publicacy arguments against privacy"
• Part XI: "The Web 2.0 movement is opposed to the privacy movement." 
• Part XII: "No consumer control over the commercialization of their privacy?"
• Part XIII: "Does new Government cookie policy favor publicacy over privacy? "
• Part XIV: "Google Book Settlement "absolutely silent on user privacy"