Paranoid

I stumbled upon an interesting article that while I’m not surprised by its findings, it is relevant to recent discussions on personalization and critical mass with respect to advanced mobile software.

According to a survey by Harris Interactive, nearly 60% of Americans (questioned) feel uneasy about the use of personal information and past activity (digital footprint) for content personalization.

“There’s a creepy factor and a fear of the unknown that people don’t want to deal with,” said Michelle Warren, senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ontario.
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Nearly 60 percent of 2,513 people in the United States questioned in a Harris Interactive poll said they were uneasy when Web sites use information about personal online activity to tailor advertisements or content.

Yes, this is expected. That is the big challenge ahead us when dealing with People and Data…

One thing is a truism; for everything to work, from Google to advanced personalization, a level of trust must exist; trust that our solutions are not sharing personal identifiable information, won’t be used for spamming, won’t be used for evil things. That is the most important premise of all, for all of this to work.

60% of Americans feeling uneasy is still a large number. As Michael at eZee says: I bet they are asking the questions the wrong way; of course people will say they don’t like to be tracked, but that is not the question to ask; instead, the questions to ask have to be more tangible, such as specific things they would get in return, in exchange of personal identifiable information, or activity information… yes, all assuming the information is safeguarded, and not shared. We all do it today, with Google, credit cards usage, and social networks.

The article follows:

“Free search engines or social networking sites are encoded on web user’s DNA, and one way to defend behavioral marketing is to sweeten its benefits to users,” Westin said in an interview.

Yes, correctomundo! People will give permission to capture and/or use personal information, in exchange for something back that is of value.

Also from the report, and expected, is the following about “the younger generation”:

“The survey showed that younger users are more comfortable with the customized web content, with people aged 18-43 leading the pack.”

At the end of the day, to reap the benefits of personalization there is no other way but to combine people and data, to mine such personal information. It’s all a matter of time…

Related to this see:

ceo

[Via ZDNet ITFacts]
[Image credit: Fitbuff]