Do Not Embarrass: Re-Examining User Concerns for Online Tracking and Advertising

Recent studies have highlighted user concerns with respect to third-party tracking and online behavioral advertising (OBA) and the need for better consumer choice mechanisms to address these phenomena. We re-investigate the question of perceptions of OBA, studying it in the context of a non-US population (Indian IT industry workers) and situating it in the larger context of how online ads, in general, are perceived by users. Via in-depth interviews conducted with 50 participants, we find that although concerns for third-party tracking and OBA remain strong amongst this population, other aspects of online advertising|like the possibility of being shown ads with embarrassing and sensitive content|are more upsetting to users and are often voiced as greater concerns. Current-day blocking tools provide little redress to the situation: users demand selective filtering of ad content (as opposed to, say, blocking out all ads) and are not satisfied with mechanisms that only suppress third-party tracking and OBA.We conclude with design recommendations for user-facing tools to control online ad consumption keeping in mind the concerns brought forth by our study.