• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 6, 2025

Here is a situation that should alarm publishers (not to mention advertisers): 54% of all Americans say that personalized ads creep them out, according to a new study by YouGov.

What’s more, 44% have ad blockers running all the time no matter what the website is. 

This could affect revenue if people block or stop responding to ads over these fears, it’s not clear what publishers can do about it.  

Facebook appears to be the scariest channel—68% of users say personalized ads bother them. Next is YouTube, with 65%.

Instagram is third with 46%, X is fourth with 30% and 26% of TikTok users are bothered. 

Of course, it varies with age: 62% of Gen X and baby boomers are uncomfortable, versus 50% of Gen Z and millennials. At 22%, the latter are the most comfortable with personalized ads.  

Perhaps because platforms are so advanced, 56% of consumers in the US and UK are weirded out. But the numbers hover around 21% for shoppers in India, Indonesia and the UAE.  

Looking at the general population, here are the types of advertising they find invasive:

• Ads based on browsing history—59% 
• Ads based on social media behavior—48% 
• Ads based on purchasing history—42%
• Location-based ads—35%
• Retargeted ads (i.e., serving ads to people who have previously interacted with a brand)—30%
• Don’t know—11%
• None of these—11%

What would make consumers more comfortable? They list: 

• Options to opt out—52%
• Minimal data collection—35% 
• Clear privacy policies—33%
• Ads that only used anonymized data (i.e., data that has been altered to make it difficult or impossible to identify the person associated with it)—30%
• None of these—21%
• Regular updates on data usage—17%
• Don’t know—12%

One more bad sign is only 27% of US consumers agree that personalized advertising is helpful for discovering new products they want to buy.  

YouGov Surveys polled 1,503 respondents in the US from Dec. 18, 2024 to Jan. 2, 2025.