While discovery of new and relevant content is the most mentioned benefit for the use of consumer or political targeted online advertising, the public identify invasions of privacy and personal information being shared with third parties as the most prevalent concerns, highlighting a tension between personalisation of content and privacy.

Image credit: Photo by @felipepelaquim on Unsplash

Half of the public (50%) chose it will help people discover new products that might be of interest to them’ as a benefit in relation to targeted online consumer advertisement, while only one third (33%) select this as a benefit for targeted online political advertisement (‘It will help people discover new political representatives who might be of interest to them’). Similar proportions for both technologies mention the relevance of ads as a benefit for consumer targeted advertising (53%) and for political ads (32%).

Table 9: Most commonly selected benefits for targeted online advertising

Which of the following, if any, are ways you think the use of this technology will be beneficial?’ 

Technology
1st
2nd
3rd
Targeted consumer advertising
1st
More relevant ads :
55%
2nd
Discover new products :
50%
3rd
Faster and easier :
39%
Targeted political advertising
1st
Faster and easier :
35%
2nd
Discover new politicians :
33%
3rd
More relevant ads :
32%
Technology Percentage
Targeted consumer advertising 1 More relevant ads 55%
2 Discover new products 50%
3 Faster and easier 39%
Targeted political advertising 1 Faster and easier 35%
2 Discover new politicians 33%
3 More relevant ads 32%

However, as seen in previous sections, people are highly concerned about these uses of AI. Over two thirds of people (69%) identify invading privacy as a concern for targeted online consumer advertisements, while 51% identify this for political advertisements. Similarly, 68% selected the technology will gather personal information which could be shared with third parties’ as a concern for consumer adverts while 48% selected this concern for political adverts. 

This suggests that while the public might find social media advertising more helpful in discovering relevant content, especially for consumer adverts, they are also less trusting of what is done with their personal information. 

This resonates with the findings from an online study on online advertising in the UK and France which found that most participants were concerned about how their browsing activity was being used even when they saw some of the benefits related to discovery. The study concluded that participants wanted their data, and their ability to choose how it is used, to be respected and to be able to practically, meaningfully, and simply curate their own advertising experience’.

Table 10: Most commonly selected concerns for targeted online advertising

Technology
1st
2nd
3rd
Targeted consumer advertising
1st
Invade privacy :
69%
2nd
Sharing personal information :
68%
3rd
Security of personal information :
50%
Targeted political advertising
1st
Invade privacy :
51%
2nd
Sharing personal information :
48%
3rd
Reduce diversity of content :
46%
Technology Percentage
Targeted consumer advertising 1 Invade privacy 69%
2 Sharing personal information 68%
3 Security of personal information 50%
Targeted political advertising 1 Invade privacy 51%
2 Sharing personal information 48%
3 Reduce diversity of content 46%