BusinessWire: “A new study of 90 organizations actively engaged in online marketing concludes that in spite of an acknowledged return on investment, hundreds of millions of dollars are being held back from online behavioral advertising (OBA) over concerns that a lack of consumer trust in the practice could damage brand reputation. The study, Economic Impact of Privacy on Online Behavioral Advertising, conducted independently by the Ponemon Institute, found that although 70 percent of companies agreed that behaviorally targeted advertising substantially increases marketing and sales performance, and in spite of an overall favorable return, most companies surveyed have limited their online advertising budgets over privacy concerns. In fact, extrapolated results suggest that budgets would be as much as four times higher if not for these concerns. Among the study’s noteworthy results:

98 percent of companies surveyed said they have restricted OBA because of privacy concerns;
• 63 percent of companies surveyed rated OBA as their most effective form of marketing; and,
• Overall, companies surveyed reported under-spending on OBA budgets by 75 percent due to privacy concerns.
• For the 90 companies benchmarked, the total amount not spent on OBA was $604.9 million.”