Every time you use the internet, whether intentionally or not, you leave an enormous trail of information in your wake. Companies pay considerable amounts of money to access that data. After all, knowing if someone goes shopping for shoes after browsing a fashion blog is valuable information that might improve their sales and marketing strategies. While this data may be useful, it completely ignores whether or not users are comfortable with companies using their data in such blatantly self-serving ways. It’s even worse when third parties or companies that users have never interacted with before suddenly start sending emails or serving detailed ads without any consent from the user. Today, customers expect data transparency. They don’t like their data being used by third parties without their consent, and developers are finally taking steps to prevent user data from being mined without their knowledge.

Apple recently announced that it would display a new icon when it is collecting personal information, which will likely force other big players to follow suit. Another big move by the tech giant making waves is the intelligent tracking prevention (ITP) feature that Apple decided to implement in Safari. While ITP is only available on iPhones, iMacs and iPads, it has already had an outsized effect on advertising revenues, with ad tech giant Criteo estimating that ITP adoption will cost them at least one-fifth of their revenue in a single quarter.

The issue for Criteo and companies like it is that ITP prevents Safari users from being followed around the internet by using a machine-learning algorithm that can block cookies if there’s no first-party connection to the user. This not only makes it harder for companies to track users around the internet, it also makes it difficult for companies to get access to information on people they don’t have first-party relationships with.

Luckily for advertisers, relatively few people use Safari, as compared to other browsers. Not as luckily, Google Chrome, which, according to some estimates, controls 56% of the browser market, has also announced a built-in ad blocker meant to get rid of intrusive and annoying ads. Unlike Apple, Google worked with partners in the ad industry to craft a feature that only blocks ads that autoplay, block content or take up the entire screen, instead of preventing advertisers from getting access to user information.

The problems that advertisers are facing are deeper than the fact that they’re not able to get personal information on a small subset of the internet-using population — the problem for advertisers stems from the fact that the tide has shifted in favor of the consumer. There’s a reason ad blocker usage has been steadily increasing for years: Consumers are sick and tired of seeing their personal information used without their approval. Advertisers are all being told by the market that more data transparency is required, but instead of responding to the will of the consumer, they’re only doubling down and trying to find ways around privacy initiatives.

From a company’s perspective, it might seem like the benefits of using consumer data outweigh the risks. After all, isn’t someone more likely to click on an ad if it’s more relevant to them? The problem with this point of view is that ignores the fact that it’s kind of creepy to have an ad follow you around the internet. It’s also creepy to see information — such as your name, email address and browsing habits — displayed prominently on banner ads and pop-ups on random websites.

Contrary to popular belief, the way to win your users’ loyalty is not by gathering all of the information you can find on them and dumping it in an ad; instead, brands have to exercise a measure of transparency. How might brands do this? By giving people the opportunity to opt in or out of certain types of advertising, for instance, or by making it clear how their information will be used. At the end of the day, it’s all about customers and the customer experience, and someone who feels that a company is invading their privacy is a lot less likely to become a customer.