"New Research Puts Your Online Privacy Preferences to the Test"

A new study titled "Valuing Intrinsic and Instrumental Preferences for Privacy," conducted by Tesary Lin of Boston University, calls on marketers and websites to separate consumer privacy preferences into intrinsic and instrumental components when those consumers are provided data-sharing options. According to Lin, consent is increasingly becoming a requirement for personal data processing. What information can be collected and shared is determined by consumer preferences. Since the outcomes of sharing data are situational, many consumers' privacy preferences are more situational. Lin's study sought to find out why and how this should influence future efforts to collect and share consumer data. Lin conducted a market research survey through the University of Chicago, asking participants questions aimed at measuring their valuation of smartwatch attributes and their intent to purchase a digital device. Participants were asked to share some identifying information such as their gender, age, relationship status, and whether or not they have children. With each personal question, participants could select "prefer not to say." Participants were later given the option of sharing their completed survey responses with a third party, a smartwatch manufacturer, who wanted to use the data to improve the design of its product. Participants had the option of sharing each personal variable separately. People were compensated with gift cards for sharing more information. The experiment changes the economic payoff to participants at random when the shared data reveals private information about them in order to measure instrumental decision-making. When the shared data reveals that they are high-income consumers interested in digital products, the payoff is higher in the treatment group. The payoff in the control group is not dependent on the private information revealed by data. The control group lacks instrumental concerns, and participants sharing decisions are only motivated by intrinsic motivations. This study did not seek to identify larger consumer preferences in themselves but rather to determine whether or not both intrinsic and instrumental forms of decision-making should be considered when it comes to online privacy, Lin adds. This article continues to discuss the study on valuing intrinsic and instrumental preferences for privacy.

SCIENMAG reports "New Research Puts Your Online Privacy Preferences to the Test"