Research Summary

Survey

The goal of our survey (phase one of our research) was to obtain an accurate picture of Facebook users’ attitudes regarding targeted advertising and privacy online–in both a general sense and specific to Facebook. The survey was distributed and formed on Google Forms so that it would be more efficient and easier to get a large number of responses.The survey was sent to family members via group chats on Groupme and iPhone. The survey’s first part asked for the participant’s attitudes towards privacy and targeted advertising in general and then asked the participants a different series of questions depending on whether or not they had a Facebook account. Out of the 103 participants in the survey, four responded that they did not have a Facebook Account for reasons being general social-media disinterest and privacy concern. Privacy was further probed.

When asked how concerned users were about their privacy online on a scale from 1 being no knowledge to 5 being very high knowledge, the average answer was 3.7. The responses from those aged 22 or under report lower privacy concern than those aged over, with an average response of 3.5 compared to 4.2, respectively. When asked about how familiar they were with the concept of targeted advertising, only 8.7% responded below a 3 on a 1 to 5 scale. Of the responses when asked if users cared about the accuracy of targeted ads, 70% responded with a 3 or higher. 25% of participants responded that they had never interacted with ad settings on any platform while 46.5% of participants with a Facebook account responded that they do not even know how to access their ad preference settings. 25.3% responded that they do know how to access their ad preference settings, but have never interacted with them, and 28.3% said that they both know how to access the ad preference settings and have interacted with them. The survey asked if participants had read Facebook’s privacy policy, and 84.8% responded as having not read any of it. 11.1% answered that they had at least partially read the privacy policy, and only 4% had read the entire privacy policy.

These responses reveal most users care about their privacy online and the accuracy of targeted ads. Their privacy, however, can seem to be jeopardized by the lack of transparency of third-party data collectors. This lack of transparency creates privacy concerns because it prevents Facebook users from seeing exactly what data is being collected from them and creates difficulty for users to adjust their ad preference settings.

Our goal, after reviewing survey data, is to probe further into how Facebook can make ad preference settings more easily accessible and to directly show users how the collection of their data affects the ads they are presented. If Facebook users are given this information in a more presentable form, they will be able to make more educated decisions on using their ad preference settings, which would result in more accurate targeted advertising and set users more at ease in regards to their online privacy.

Interview

These lingering thoughts were further explored in stage two of our research, interviews. In order to get interviews, we asked survey respondents at the end of the survey if they would be interested in being interviewed. This was for the purpose of obtaining information about personal perceptions about Facebook ad settings and privacy, and online privacy and safety. Seven survey respondents said that they were interested in doing an interview. We were able to reach out and interview 4 of those respondents. To reach our goal of interviewing at least 6-8 respondents, each member reached out to at least one to two family members or friends they knew that completed the survey to see if they would be interested in being interviewed. From doing so, we were able to obtain 4 more interviews. This brought the total to 8 interviews.

Those that were interviewed were asked five questions. The number was kept to five (and occasionally six) so that interviewees did not feel tired or get bored being asked a large amount of questions. We asked the following questions:

What would incentivize you to interact more with your Facebook ad preference settings?
How could Facebook make it easier to find your ad preference settings?
What would motivate you to change your ad preference settings?
Are you interested in reading a weekly report of data collected by advertisers?
What should Facebook change/do to get you to interact more with your ad preference settings? (This question was asked if the interviewee said they didn’t interact with it much or at all in the survey.)
Why do you interact with Facebook ad preference settings? (This question was asked if the interviewee said they did interact with it often in the survey.)

For the first question, participants commonly said knowing where to find ad preference settings and how to interact with it would incentivize them to interact with it more. For the second question, participants suggested that Facebook put ad preference settings on the homescreen to make it easier for them to find. More specifically, participants suggested that there be a button or section in relation to ad preference settings on the top right of the screen where “Home”, “Find Friends”, etc. can be found. For the third question, participants said they would be motivated to change their ad preference settings if the ads they are receiving are not relevant. For the fourth question, a majority of participants said they would be interested in seeing a weekly or possibly daily report of data collected by advertisers. Also, participants stated that this would encourage them more to interact more often with their ad preference settings so they could receive relevant ads. For the fifth question, participants commonly said that Facebook should make ad preference settings more accessible and prompt users to use it. The sixth question did not receive any responses as we were not able to interview anyone who used their ad preference settings often.

We can gather some important findings from the interviews. First, Facebook users would be more likely to interact with their ad preference settings if it was easier to access. Second, Facebook users want relevant ads. Receiving ads that aren’t relevant to them would make them most likely to interact with their ad preference settings. Finally, Facebook users are interested in receiving a weekly or daily report of data collected by advertisers.

Think-Aloud Testing

Our final part of our research process was conducting a think-aloud testing. For the first part of the think-aloud testing portion, we asked participants to log onto their Facebook account on either their desktop or laptop. Then, they performed the following actions:

“Locate and browse your ad preference settings. Verbalize where your eyes are going as you scroll and click through. Also verbalize if you are attracted or drawn to a certain aspect of the page. Continue browsing for a total of one to one and a half minutes.”

We found that the average amount of time it took a participant to find their ad preference settings was 81.9 seconds. The majority of the participants did not know ahead of time where their ad preference settings were, and the times varied from 20 seconds to 188 seconds due to navigation intuition levels–given each one’s familiarity with the interface. An important finding found in step one is that a large majority of participants started their search for their ad preference settings by navigating to the top right of the homescreen where “Home” and other sections of Facebook can be found.

The second portion of our think-aloud testing considered and explored participants’ perceptions of their ad preference settings. Participants were somewhat surprised to learn that Facebook used user data to tailor ads. Those who said they had already suspected their data was used for some form of targeted advertising were still surprised when they saw what Facebook assumed based on their online behavior.

One tab catching the attention of many participants was “Your Interests.” Some said their interests were mostly correct, while others said that there were a lot of businesses that they did not recognize at all. In general, when the participants found information that Facebook assumed about them that was inaccurate, they were either curious to discover how they may have contributed to those inaccuracies and why Facebook made incorrect conclusions about them, or they were completely dissuaded from looking further into that particular category.

Furthermore, one of the more popular comments was that there were too many dense blocks of text on the page, which ultimately deterred most of the participants from reading further. A few participants suggested that having visuals to replace some of the text would have made it more user friendly and welcoming. All in all, many of the participants said they would not change any actual settings on their ad preference settings as of now, and were exploring sections mainly on the basis of curiosity.

General Discussion

The research findings confirmed we believe will achieve our mission. As stated in Milestone 1, our mission is to help consumers better understand what personal information Facebook and advertisers have access to and how ad preference settings work through increasing consumer engagement with Facebook ad preference settings. This will, in turn, correct any of their misconceptions surrounding Facebook’s targeted advertising.

Based on research, we have come up with developing an ad engagement tracker that will be featured in the top right of Facebook user’s homescreens alongside “Home” and other sections, it will be called “Ad Tracker.” Once clicked, the ad engagement tracker will show the percentage of ads that you receive from certain categories and include information on why those ads are being presented to the user. The tracker will provide Facebook users with a link to get to their ad preference settings if they want to change them.

Our ad engagement tracker will achieve our mission by increasing consumer engagement because it is an idea that Facebook users said they would be interested in interacting with during the interview stage of our research. Facebook users said that seeing such information would invoke them to interact with their ad preference settings more often. Second, our idea makes it easier for Facebook users to find and interact with their ad preference settings, which will in turn increase consumer engagement with ad preference settings. In our research, Facebook user’s showed us that they didn’t know where their ad preference settings were and stated that the difficulty and finding it has prevented them from engaging with it. They also suggested that it would be easier to find their ad preference settings if there was a section for it or related to it at the top right of the home screen. By placing the ad engagement tracker in the top right of the Facebook home screen alongside “Home” and other sections, it will make it easier for users to find their ad preference settings, which will result in more engagement with ad preference settings. All together, making ad preference settings easier to find and delivering a tool that will spark their interest to engage with their ad preference settings, consumer engagement will be increased within the ad preference settings. The increased consumer engagement with ad preference settings will lead to users better understanding of what personal information Facebook and advertisers have access to, as well as how these settings work.