New data finds that a significant portion of undecided voters oppose online tracking ahead of the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, raising new questions for advertisers about audience targeting.
With U.S. political advertisers projected to spend $13.8 billion reaching voters in the 2026 midterm cycle, new research raises questions about whether that investment is reaching the right people. Nano Interactive, a global leader in AI-powered, privacy-first intent signal intelligence, conducted a study revealing that undecided voters, the segment most likely to determine election outcomes, are also the segment most opposed to being tracked online, presenting a fundamental challenge to conventional digital targeting strategies.
Nano Interactive commissioned a survey of registered U.S. voters across party lines to examine attitudes toward online privacy and digital advertising ahead of the 2026 midterms. The findings reveal that undecided voters are more resistant to online tracking:
● 51% of undecided voters say they dislike being tracked online
● 37% do not accept cookies when prompted
● 38% say using their personal data for advertising doesn't feel safe
● 31% say it feels like an invasion of privacy
● 18% actively go out of their way to avoid personalized ads, more than Democrats (14%) and Republicans (16%)
These findings reflect a broader national sentiment: 61% of Americans say limiting access to their personal data is very important, according to YouGov, and 81% say they feel concerned about how companies use the data they collect about them, per Pew Research Center.
"Undecided voters are an example of a larger cohort of audiences who are missed by the targeting methods of many campaigns,” said Niall Moody, Chief Revenue Officer at Nano Interactive. “More than a third are declining cookies, and nearly one in five are actively avoiding personalized ads. A meaningful portion of this audience has already opted out of conventional digital targeting. Campaigns built on cookie-based data are, in many cases, missing a large portion of audiences."
AI Offers A New Approach to Reaching Privacy-Conscious Audiences
For advertisers, the data reflects a broader reality. A significant and growing share of the U.S. population is opting out of cookie-based targeting, and conventional digital methods have no reliable way to reach them. Closing that gap requires a different approach. Nano Interactive's proprietary LIIFT™ platform technology has been proven to effectively reach privacy-conscious audiences identified in this research across channels, including CTV, using off-the-shelf persona segments built specifically for undecided voters. These segments are developed using human-verified panels, combining AI-driven signal analysis with human validation, so advertisers can activate against this audience without relying on cookies, tracking, or personal data.
“Advances in artificial intelligence have expanded what’s possible in audience targeting. Insteadof relying on personal data, AI can now identify interest based on real-time contextual signals, what someone is reading, watching, or searching for in the moment, and use that to inform ad delivery without collecting personal information,” said Moody. “Our platform processes more than 4.9 billion real-time signals daily to understand audience intent as it forms, without cookies, tracking, or personal data. The undecided voter segments are grounded in human-verified panels rather than algorithmic assumptions alone, and with NanoQ, advertisers can now build custom audiences to add directly to their political campaign stack. For advertisers facing a shrinking addressable audience, this represents a meaningful shift in how reach can be achieved.