Online Consumer Privacy I
(A2024-119314)

AUTHORS

Bernd Skiera, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany; Klaus Miller, HEC Paris; Unnati Narang, UIUC; Alexander Bleier, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management; Maximilian Schaefer, IMT Business School; Gracia Cecere, Institut Mines Telecom, Business School

ABSTRACT

This session aims to assemble the latest research on online consumer privacy: Have I Seen you Before? Measuring the Value of Tracking for Digital Advertising. Cecere and Lemaire Privacy regulation aiming to reduce the ability of ad platforms to aggregate user data can decrease the quality of ad display and thus challenge data-driven business models. We investigate the effect of privacy protection rules on the market for ads. We leverage a change in Apple's privacy policy, the App Tracking Transparency, to compare ad campaigns targeting iOS users versus Android users. To assess the effect of the policy, we use an original database of estimated ad outcomes on a social network in the US market. The results suggest a relative reduction in targeting efficiency and ad prices. Geo-tracking Consumers and its Privacy Trade-off. Narang and Luco We quantify how geo-tracking data collected by mobile apps allow restaurants to better predict their consumers’ visits relative to consumer demographics and past behaviors and the impact of restricting geo-tracking data under privacy regulations. Using rich geo-tracking data with over 120 million driving instances, we show that geo-tracking data improve predictions by 3-14% relative to demographic and behavioral data. Our policy simulations show that privacy regulations that restrict what data are geo-tracked and where users are geo-tracked result in the largest decreases in predictive performance relative to complete tracking. Overall, models with restricted geo-tracking still outperform models that do not use any geo-tracking. Managing Customer Information Intensity and Privacy Stock within a CRM Program. Bleier, Haenlein, Holtrop, Hofacker, Lancelot-Miltgen, Milne, Walker In this paper, we advance CRM research and practice by explicitly addressing strategies that companies should consider when collecting information from their customers. We introduce the concepts of customer information intensity and privacy stock and use a simple numerical example to show how these two strategic concepts interact given heterogeneity in customer tolerance for privacy-related costs. Drawing from the example, a series of research questions are presented that can be used to direct future research in the CRM and privacy literatures. Off-platform tracking and data externalities. Aguiar, Peukert, Schaefer, Ullrich Off-platform tracking facilitates the comprehensive observation of internet users' browsing behaviour. This practice extends beyond the platform's user base and encompasses both disclosed personal characteristics, such as age and gender, and implicit behavioural data. The integration of such data allows platforms to construct intricate consumer profiles. The predictive accuracy derived from non-platform users' browsing is in line with substantial data externalities. We document that the GDPR induces heterogeneous effects on data externalities, based on users’ browsing behaviour.