According to new studies, people often understand that advertisement are necessary to provide free services on the Internet. But only a few know the extent of behavior analysis being performed today by advertisement networks. Only 25% believes that on-line mail services such as Hotmail and Gmail displays targeted advertisements based on the actual content of the e-mails you write and receive. 16% thinks that this practice is illegal.

Mostly this seems to boil down to a lack of understanding of how the Internet works, how cookies work, how the data flows and the current practices used by targeted advertisers.

Aleecia McDonald gives a presentation about privacy on Google TechTalks based on three user studies done by the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory (CUPS).