Nielsen is considering making Internet usage tracking mandatory in all its existing TV sample households, reports MediaPost.
The consideration arrived amid pushback from some TV households in the Nielsen sample who said they don't want their online behavior tracked and cite privacy concerns.
For its part, Nielsen acknowledges a higher expectation of privacy with regard to online behavior, as opposed to what kind of TV is watched.
The research firm wants to be able to measure Internet usage in these houses for a number of reasons. It is currently in the process of building a total-engagement metric dubbed Anytime/Anywhere. The data would also enable researchers to gauge users' propensity to leave televisions on in the background while Internet surfing.
Nielsen is currently mulling a number of potential approaches that may make such an action more palatable to members of the TV sample group and alleviate privacy concerns.
