Tailor-made ad experience could "revolutionise" industry

A total 39% of US consumers would rather share personal information with brands they’re interested in, in exchange for a bespoke ad experience, according to a new report.

The report, commissioned by TRUSTe, polled 2,000 American’s and further found that 48% of respondents would be happy to share so long as the advertiser’s privacy policy was certified by a third-party privacy organisation.

One in three of those that said they would be happy to share information said they would be more likely to click though on an ad.

To complement the research TRUSTe also ran field tests, in order to obtain relative data, and found that 90% chose to share their interests, with half of them also stating they would share multiple interests. The healthy results has given birth to TRUSTe launching a “privacy-friendly” interests management system to engage with users willing to share details. The system allows consumers to manage the information they want to share with the ad network in exchange for relevant ads.

CEO Chris Babel said: “Enabling consumers to share their interests directly with advertisers has the potential to revolutionise the ad industry, addressing consumer and regulatory privacy concerns while putting consumers in control over their advertising experience and enabling advertisers to deliver more relevant ads.

“Consumers are increasingly concerned about being tracked online but currently their only choice is to opt-out of interest-based advertising. TRUSTe Interests enables consumers to take control of their digital experience without expecting them to become experts in cookies or tracking technologies in order to protect their privacy.”