The problem is that these polls assume the authority of scientific inquiry without any rigor. I could state that 40% of people believe personalized ads are unet

The problem is that these polls assume the authority of scientific inquiry without any rigor. I could state that 40% of people believe personalized ads are unethical, and that might be accurate, but when I claim it and admit that I pulled it out of hot/thin air, at least you know that it's just that -- hot air. Polling 6,000 self-selected people from 2 different continents and 4 different countries and weighting the responses based on populations in the millions is pseudoscience. RSA bought this survey. They're an internet security company. They didn't "research" this for any reason other than the fact that this press release is good for their bottom line.