A More Granular Look at What Kinds of Data Consumers Are Happy to Disclose

Despite all the understandably scary headlines about the risks of data collection, plenty of consumers are still willing to provide personal information to brands. The catch? They need something in return, and the type of advertising as well as the type of data on which it’s based are crucial to securing consumer trust.

Almost a third of consumers prefer ads tailored to their interests, and nearly a quarter of consumers are even more comfortable sharing data with brands than they were one to two years ago, according to a survey of 1,000 US consumers by TV advertising and analytics platform Innovid. But people are also wisening up to the stakes of data collection, demanding certain privacy provisions and better ads in return.

There are a few strategies brands can deploy to earn consumer trust when collecting data. The most popular is allowing customers to dictate data collection practices, which 35% of respondents said they prefer. Twelve percent said they want brands to share their data collection policies, and seven percent want a data collection certification. Another 43% of respondents said they are simply not comfortable sharing data with brands.

Consumer comfort with data collection also varies based on the type of data collected and its use. Thirty-nine percent said they’re most comfortable with contextual ads, which aligns with an emerging media narrative about a return to contextual advertising, which appears less invasive than its behavioral counterpart. Thirty-one percent said they’re most comfortable with demographics-based advertising, followed by 29% who said behavioral advertising is kosher with them.

Sixty percent said they are comfortable being served personalized ads based on what they like and dislike online. That was the highest-rated form of data collection for consumer trust. It was followed by gender (47%), location (30%), and birthday (21%). Consumers widely oppose being served ads based on browser history (11% support), employment (8%), and income (8%).

The report also provides insight on the types of personalized ads from which advertisers can hope to generate the most engagement. The most popular personalized ad topic is events. Forty-one percent of consumers said they’re more likely to click on personalized ads for events as opposed to impersonal ads in that category. Thirty-eight percent said the same of products in which they had already expressed interest, followed by 34% for products the user may like and 26% for ads or products at local businesses.