Survey Says: Consumers Confused About Online Tracking

Amid the chatter regarding the elections,the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology recently released a report on Americans' views of "Do Not Track".They found that 87% of the 1,200 people surveyed had never heard of Do Not Track.The Do Not Track regulations that privacy groups began advocating for over 5 years ago calls for an opt-out mechanism that would allow people to opt-out once from all behavioral advertising.The Federal Trade Commission supported this measure and in 2010 they offered testimony to Congress stating that industry self-regulation has fallen short and that legislation may be the best course for a uniform approach.

While the government, privacy advocates and the ad industry sort out the details, it's time to focus on users. The survey report demonstrates a clear need for user education as almost half of those surveyed answered "don't know" to survey questions about online tracking and sharing of information that is collected.Those surveyed that