DO THEY REALLY CARE ABOUT TARGETED POLITICAL ADS? INVESTIGATION OF USER PRIVACY CONCERNS AND PREFERENCES

Reliance on targeted political ads has skyrocketed in recent years, leading to negative reactions in media and society. Nonetheless, only few studies investigate user privacy concerns and their role in user acceptance decisions in the context of online political targeting. To fill this gap, in this study we explore the magnitude of privacy concerns towards targeted political ads compared to “tradi-tional” targeting in the product context. Surprisingly, we find no notable differences in privacy concerns between these use purposes. In the next step, user preferences over ad types are elicited with the help of a discrete choice experiment in the mobile app adoption context. Among others, our findings from simulations on the basis of a mixed logit model cautiously suggest that while targeted political advertising is perceived as somewhat less desirable by respondents, its presence does not consequentially deter users from choosing such an app, with user preferences being high-ly volatile. Together, these results contribute to a better understanding of users’ privacy concerns and preferences in the context of targeted political advertising online. Acknowledgment This work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) under grant no. 16DII116 (“Deutsches Internet-Institut”)

Privacy concerns amidst OBA and the need for alternative models

What convinces users to share information about themselves in an ad-based online world? We explore users willingness to share data in the context of online behavioural advertising (OBA) and tracking prevention tools. We find positive responses for OBA and clear preferences for which types of information users would like to disclose. Factors including privacy attitudes and control mechanisms impact peoples decisions to share their information with websites. These factors yield a discussion of the ad-based business model of the Internet and the balance with user preferences

Return on Data: Personalizing Consumer Guidance in Data Exchanges

Consumers routinely supply personal data to technology companies in exchange for services. Yet, the relationship between the utility (U) consumers gain and the data (D) they supply — “return on data” (ROD) — remains largely unexplored. Expressed as a ratio, ROD = U / D. While lawmakers strongly advocate protecting consumer privacy, they tend to overlook ROD. Are the benefits of the services enjoyed by consumers, such as social networking and predictive search, commensurate with the value of the data extracted from them? How can consumers compare competing data-for-services deals? Currently, the legal frameworks regulating these transactions, including privacy law, aim primarily to protect personal data