I'm supposed to see that?' AdChoices Usability in the Mobile Environment

The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) recently adapted its self-regulatory notice-and-choice program to the mobile environment by creating a mobile version of its existing opt-out webpage and a new mobile app. Its AdChoices icon remains the primary means on the mobile Web of alerting consumers to the presence of behaviorally-targeted advertising. Previous research has uncovered major usability flaws in the desktop versions, so evaluating the mobile tools is prudent. Mobile devices also present unique usability challenges and afford greater opportunity for tracking consumers. A qualitative study was conducted in which participants (n=18) were given test smartphones and asked to complete three tasks corresponding to the AdChoices icon, webpage, and app. Major usability problems were found that could impact a user’s mental model of how these tools work, and the extent to which their privacy is protected. This paper presents findings from the first usability task about the AdChoices icon.

[1]  Lorrie Faith Cranor,et al.  Can Users Control Online Behavioral Advertising Effectively? , 2012, IEEE Security & Privacy.

[2]  Nathaniel Good,et al.  Behavioral Advertising: The Offer You Can't Refuse , 2012 .

[3]  J. Miller,et al.  Evaluating the Readability of Privacy Policies in Mobile Environments , 2011, Int. J. Mob. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[4]  Blase Ur,et al.  What do online behavioral advertising privacy disclosures communicate to users? , 2012, WPES '12.

[5]  Yang Wang,et al.  Why Johnny can't opt out: a usability evaluation of tools to limit online behavioral advertising , 2012, CHI.

[6]  John C. Mitchell,et al.  Third-Party Web Tracking: Policy and Technology , 2012, 2012 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

[7]  Chris Jay Hoofnagle,et al.  Flash Cookies and Privacy II: Now with HTML5 and ETag Respawning , 2011 .

[8]  R. Shay,et al.  AdChoices? Compliance with Online Behavioral Advertising Notice and Choice Requirements. Revised Version , 2011 .

[9]  Pernille Wegener Jessen,et al.  Profiling the mobile customer - Is industry self-regulation adequate to protect consumer privacy when behavioural advertisers target mobile phones? - Part II , 2010, Comput. Law Secur. Rev..

[10]  Veda C. Storey,et al.  Compliance to the fair information practices: How are the Fortune 500 handling online privacy disclosures? , 2006, Inf. Manag..

[11]  Jacob O. Wobbrock,et al.  The Future of Mobile Device Research in HCI , 2006 .

[12]  Steven C. Bennett,et al.  Regulating Online Behavioral Advertising, 44 J. Marshall L. Rev. 899 (2011) , 2011 .

[13]  Charles A. McMellon.  Book Review: The Daily you: How the New Advertising Industry is Defining your Identity and your Worth , 2013 .

[14]  J. Reeve,et al.  Solutions to problematic polypharmacy: learning from the expertise of patients. , 2015, The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

[15]  Milton L. Mueller,et al.  Profiling the Profilers: Deep Packet Inspection and Behavioral Advertising in Europe and the United States , 2012 .

[16]  Helen Nissenbaum,et al.  On Notice: The Trouble with Notice and Consent , 2009 .

[17]  Lorrie Faith Cranor,et al.  Necessary But Not Sufficient: Standardized Mechanisms for Privacy Notice and Choice , 2012, J. Telecommun. High Technol. Law.

[18]  Daniel J. Solove.  'I've Got Nothing to Hide' and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy , 2007 .

[19]  D. Norman.  The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition , 2013 .

[20]  Yuan Li,et al.  Theories in online information privacy research: A critical review and an integrated framework , 2012, Decis. Support Syst..

[21]  Pernille Wegener Jessen,et al.  Profiling the mobile customer - Privacy concerns when behavioural advertisers target mobile phones - Part I , 2010, Comput. Law Secur. Rev..

[22]  Pam Dixon,et al.  Failures of Privacy Self-Regulation in the United States , 2016 .

[23]  H. Nissenbaum.  A Contextual Approach to Privacy Online , 2011, Daedalus.

[24]  Lorrie Faith Cranor,et al.  A Design Space for Effective Privacy Notices , 2015, SOUPS.

[25]  Norman M. Sadeh,et al.  Expectation and purpose: understanding users' mental models of mobile app privacy through crowdsourcing , 2012, UbiComp.

[26]  Arvind Narayanan,et al.  The Web Never Forgets: Persistent Tracking Mechanisms in the Wild , 2014, CCS.

[27]  Yang Wang,et al.  Smart, useful, scary, creepy: perceptions of online behavioral advertising , 2012, SOUPS.

[28]  Ftc Staff,et al.  Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change–A Proposed Framework for Businesses and Policymakers , 2011 .

[29]  Aleecia M. McDonald,et al.  The Cost of Reading Privacy Policies , 2009 .

[30]  Yang Wang,et al.  Folk Models of Online Behavioral Advertising , 2017, CSCW.

[31]  Elspeth A. Brotherton.  Big Brother Gets a Makeover: Behavioral Targeting and the Third-Party Doctrine , 2012 .