How can we set user expectations correctly?

[benjaminsavage]

How can we set user expectations correctly?

[bmayd]

I think it needs to be more than telling users their preferences "may or may not" be used by websites they visit. When I worked on the AdChoices effort a decade ago, we included a portal through which a user could request to be opted out of "customized ads". Because participation within ad tech was limited, we regularly heard from users that the opt-out wasn’t working and found it quickly became regarded as a waste of time or worse, an annoyance. I think ad-topics is vulnerable to the same issue: user’s are going to find it isn’t worth the effort to engage, particularly if they’re offered the option of seeing “Less of this” and don’t perceive a reduction in “this”.

I also think there is a strong possibility that user’s expressing negative preferences will backfire, as bidding algorithms from companies that choose not to participate learn to take advantage of the lack of competition from companies that do participate, resulting in cases where users expressing negative preferences end up seeing more of the ads they’ve asked for less of.