How personal is personalized advertisement online?

Advertising networks use personal data to make ads on websites, for example, more targeted and thus more effective. The degree of personalization here has an advantage and a disadvantage: On the one hand, good personalization can lead to privacy concerns being reduced because the added value is increased. At certain points, however, consumers may not be able to understand how exactly “that” ad is being displayed. This non-understandability can lead to a high level of rejection of the advertising. The consumer should therefore be informed how it came about that he sees this advertising. However, it is still unclear what information should be displayed and how. Moreover, the whole phenomenon of “opaque personalization” in advertising is not well understood. Initial research shows that people have difficulty understanding at what level personalization occurs: Is data tailored to the WLAN, to the laptop, or to me personally via my gmail address, for example? Can my partner also see the WErbung that I see? It is important to talk to consumers about the moments when they don’t like advertising and how they feel about personalized advertising. In addition, what data would be informative for them and how it should be displayed to better understand how the ads they are served come about.

Contact: Timo Jakobi