A National Roper Poll® from GfK Shows a Large Majority of Email Users Disapprove of Advertisements Being Made to Look Like Personal Emails in Their Inboxes
90% of email users think their email inboxes should be the most private place on the Internet
REDMOND, Wash. — This new Roper Poll® from GfK found 9 in 10 email users (89%) disapprove of advertisements being made to look like personal emails in their inboxes. In addition, the survey, which was commissioned by Microsoft to clarify the extent to which the public understands and approves of privacy and commercial practices related to email services, showed that 90% of email users agree with the statement “my inbox should be my most private place on the Internet.” This telephone study was conducted by the global independent market research company GfK from August 2 through 4, 2013 among 1,008 Americans ages 18 and older from across the United States. A total of 809 respondents used email.
The research also indicated that 77% of email users feel email service providers have a great deal or some responsibility to keep unsolicited email or spam out of users’ inboxes. The study also found that a majority of email users prefer to see advertisements in a separate screen space beside their email (59%) rather than receiving advertisements in their email (16%).
Annie Weber, Executive Vice President of GfK Public Affairs & Corporate Communications, said that “the results suggest that many Americans consider their email inboxes to be their most private place on the Internet and expect e-mail service providers to help them protect that privacy. Our ongoing research on this topic suggests that digital privacy is a concern to people, and they expect their email service providers to help them keep unsolicited email or spam out of their inboxes.” Links to the full survey can be found here.
Key results from this survey include:
- Nine out of ten (89%) email users disapprove of advertisements being made to look like personal emails in their inbox. Half (50%) strongly disapprove.
- Nine out of ten (90%) email users agree with the statement “my inbox should be my most private place on the Internet”.
- The majority of email users prefer to see advertisements in a separate space beside their email (59%) rather than receiving advertisements in their email (16%). 23% prefer neither.
- Nearly nine out of ten (87%) email users consider their personal email inbox to be their private space and not a public forum.
- Nearly eight out of ten (77%) email users feel email service providers have a great deal or some responsibility to keep unsolicited email or spam out of their inbox.
- 56% of email users are frustrated (very or somewhat) with the amount of unsolicited email or spam they receive.
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About this study: The RDD telephone survey was conducted August 2-4, 2013 by GfK’s Public Affairs & Corporate Communications division, among a nationally-representative sample of 1,008 adults age 18 or older. Interviews were conducted with 753 respondents on landlines and 255 respondents on cellular telephones. The data were weighted on age, sex, education, race and geographic region. The margin of error on results based on the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
For more information, press only: Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7070, rrt@waggeneredstrom.com
For more information on GfK: www.gfkamerica.com