Getting our grubby paws on iPad subscriber data

Well, now, this is interesting, isn’t it?

Although the idea of giving iPad owners a choice of whether or not to divulge their name, email and zipcode sent chills through some publishers, a report finds nearly 50 percent of people click the “allow” button. For some time, Apple and publishers have been at loggerheads over who will control the flow of subscriber information. The finding that most people are willing to give up some personal data in exchange for their favorite magazine on the iPad may explain why more publishers are agreeing to Apple’s terms.

Full article at Cult of Mac.

That figure feels like something publishers can work with, but it also feels pretty random, in that there are precisely two options available when you subscribe, and slightly less than half are choosing to hit the pre-selected one:

It’s a pretty bland, factual pop-up, so it’s not really giving people much incentive to click “Allow”, really, is it? In fact, it very easily reads like you’re accepting a dump of junk mail. Now, I’m not sure how customisable that pop-up is (my guess is that it isn’t), but surely if developers could find ways of incentivising people to accept earlier in the process, by highlighting the benefits of that data transfer on the subscription information page.

Because there are benefits to the user from this, right…?