Personal data consent: What customers are afraid of and what do they look for?

The age of technology and digital transactions has brought a new dilemma for consumers: to share or not to share private information. This information, which is generally summarized in a set of data on the identity of the person, their demographic characteristics and their consumption preferences, is considerably susceptible to users of new technologies.

Experiences indicate that people are willing to reveal their privacy according to different conditions. One of them is the assurance that the client feels owner of their information; i.e., when an organization assures consumers’ privacy, they are more likely to share their data

As a result of this, companies have had to implement different mechanisms to get information from their customers. These range from inducing the acceptance of terms and conditions by default to forced choice to subscribe to newsletters. So, like any other fuel, it is necessary the existence of a regulation for the extraction and use of the data. The General Policy of Data Protection (GDPR) is generated from this situation, which is an extension and refinement of the requirements imposed in 1995 for the protection of privacy in the European Union (Newman, 2008; Hoofnagle et al. al., 2018).

So, what are the incentives for a user to give up their data? It is assumed that with these data, a company can accurately identify a customer’s consumption preferences. This would allow the consumer to minimize their online search, save time, even to access discounts for fidelity and continuity. Although customers also have the incentive to remove their data to be treated as new customers in future purchases, then enjoying discounts and other offers.

Experiences indicate that people are willing to reveal their privacy according to different conditions. One of them is the assurance that the client feels owner of their information; i.e., when an organization assures consumers’ privacy, they are more likely to share their data.

It is also necessary that consumers estimate the risk of revealing their information and are assured that their identity will not be supplanted; thus, the client will be more willing to exchange their data. In this case, when consumers know how many people are exchanging their data, they can identify that this practice is not risky; thereby, they are confident and willing to give their data.

Another condition is to let consumers know the destination and final use of the data. In particular, consumers want their data to be neither transferred nor profitable for third parties. Thus, consumers will be more willing to share their information when they know that exchange it will be used only for their own benefit.

Additionally, the disclosure of information also depends on the degree of intrusion that this brings with it; an example of this is the tracking of the online navigation and transactions of a client. In these situations, consumers will be more willing to reveal their browsing history if they believe that this tracking will bring them improved and personalized services.

In conclusion, advances in information technology must contain designs in decision-making architecture, leading consumers to make better-informed decisions in order to reduce their restrictions and to minimize the adverse consequences that make them regret revealing their privacy.

Expilab Research S.L. is a specialised technological partner with a record in designing, programming and conducting complex behavioral experiments in social sciences, consumer research, and public policy-making. Expilab’s research platform allows creation or replication any online environments from search engines, web-stores, showrooms, healthcare portals, social networks to fully-functional and realistic online gambling websites.