Consumers Distrust Companies With Their Data — but Nearly Half Will Trade It for Rewards, New KashKick Survey Finds

As consent becomes the deciding factor in a fragmented tracking landscape, new KashKick data puts a number on the “value exchange” model: rewards, not personalization, are what actually earn a yes

Tampa, FL, July 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Two-thirds of KashKick users surveyed distrust companies with their personal data — yet nearly half say they would turn tracking on in exchange for rewards or discounts, according to new proprietary survey data from KashKick, a rewards platform that pays users via PayPal, Venmo and gift cards.

The finding lands at a moment when consent, not the cookie itself, has become the deciding factor in whether companies can collect data. Google ultimately declined to deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome and wound down most of its Privacy Sandbox alternatives in late 2025 — but Safari, Firefox and Brave still block them by default, roughly a fifth of web traffic is already cookieless, and regulators increasingly treat explicit permission as non-negotiable. The result is an industry leaning on first-party data and direct opt-in, where the practical question is no longer whether tracking is technically possible but whether a person will say yes.

In KashKick’s Digital Tracking Survey, fielded in June 2026, 48% of users surveyed said they would enable tracking in exchange for rewards or discounts — more than double the next-highest reason users gave for opting in, receiving personalized content (24%). Relevant ads (20%) and personalized product recommendations (24%) trailed. Rewards were the single strongest lever tested, by a wide margin — the concrete “something in return” that the value-exchange model depends on.

Part of why a reward moves the needle is that most users aren’t fixed in their views. The largest single group — 34% — said their comfort with tracking depends heavily on the specific situation, rather than accepting or rejecting it outright. For a conditional audience like that, the terms of the exchange are what decide the answer, and a specific reward is the clearest term a company can offer.

That willingness doesn’t mean users have made peace with tracking — the same audience is deeply wary of it. Asked separately about trust, a combined 66% said they are skeptical of how companies handle their data or don’t trust companies at all, and 68% said companies should obtain explicit consent before collecting their data, always or in most cases. In other words, two things are true of this audience at once: broad distrust of how data is handled, and a concrete willingness to opt in when there’s a clear reward attached. The 48% and the 66% come from different questions, not a single split — but together they define the gap a marketer has to close.