This press release from TRUSTe mentions the results of a recent survey (since they don’t support I-Cards or OpenID+AX you’ll have to fill in a form to get the survey 
. Here are a few nuggets:
“…two out of three consumers are aware that their browsing information may be collected by a third party for advertising purposes.”
As expected. But here’s the interesting part:
“…consumer discomfort with behavioral advertising declined year over year (from 57 percent in 2008 to 51 percent in 2009)…”
and:
“…although consumers worry about protecting their private information online, they are growing more accustomed to behavioral targeting,…”
Because, its all about relevance:
“…some even preferring to be served targeted advertisements from brands they know and trust over irrelevant, intrusive advertisements. In fact, 72 percent of those surveyed said they found online advertising intrusive and annoying when the products and services being advertised were not relevant to their wants and needs.”
But the key challenge is privacy:
“Even though consumers want customization in their online experiences, they also fear an invasion of privacy. Half of all consumers still say they are uncomfortable with advertisers using their browsing history to serve them relevant ads, and many make concerted efforts to achieve anonymity when surfing the web.”
And that, my friends is why I believe so strongly that we need to shift control to the individual over their online identities, profiles, and social relationships. If I consent to release it to ad network A or brand B, then the privacy issue is off the table by defintion. Privacy is all about you deciding who can see what about you. As I said at a behavioral tracking conference last year “spying [behavioral tracking] is okay, as long as you’re spying on yourself”. And then you decide what to reveal about yourself.
