"OMG! How did it know that?": Reactions to Highly-Personalized Ads

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the question "would people be willing to share their personal data in exchange for highly-personalized online ads?" through a Wizard-of-Oz deception study. Our volunteers were exposed via a web browser to three different highly- personalized ads, designed by people who knew them well. They were made believe that the ads had been generated automatically by an Artificial Intelligence engine on the basis of their browsing & location history and/or personal traits. The participants' reactions were surprisingly favorable: in more than 50% of the cases, the ads triggered spontaneous positive emotional reactions; almost 90% of participants would share at least two of the three data sources with advertisers; and about 50% would share all data sources. Our results provide evidence that highly-personalized ads may offset the concerns that people have about sharing their personal data. Thus further efforts in building increasingly personalized online ads would represent a worthwhile endeavour.