Personal Data Sharing and Collection – Consumer Acceptance and Fairness of Exchanges in Digital Environments

Consumer engagement happens through dynamic, transactional and non-transactional interactions with brands (Brodieet al. 2011; Verhoef, Reinartz, and Krafft 2010) driventoday largely by digital interactions. Digital interactions are fueledby a growing always-on, connected consumer base armedwith an array of internet-connected devices, smartphonesespecially. Mobile devices have become critical to U.S. dailylife with the obsession growing and spreading across generations and socio-economic factors as consumers use newtechnologies and capabilities to communicate, seek information, navigate locations, shop, pay, interact with friends, andmore (Deloitte 2015; Deloitte 2016). In fact, “mobiledevices have become so ubiquitous that anyone withoutaccess to one is unable to participate in the full spectrum ofactivities that comprise our global economy” (Deloitte 2016,p. 3).The growth of the global (digital) economy has led manymarketers to believe that consumers are less concernedabout their privacy and security than people were years ago;however, the opposite may be true (Deloitte 2015). Consumers still care about protecting and controlling their personal information and are also concerned about potentialmisuses. Ironically, younger generations, growing up in anera where everything is online, have the same security concerns as older Americans (Acquisti, Brandimarte, andLoewenstein 2015; Deloitte 2015; Deloitte 2016). Mean-while, marketers are investing heavily in digital marketing,with retailers alone projected to increase their spending to$23.04 billion in 2020, up from $15.09 billion in 2016 (Liu2016). And, because digital marketing involves overt personal data collection, like signing up for text messaging, andincreasingly covert collection, like being served local advertisements based on location aware services that track movements (Xu et al. 2009), it adds tension to relationshipsbetween consumers and firms when marketers, empoweredwith rich profiling data, intrude more deeply and more precisely into the lives of consumers without providing themthe relevant benefits of personalization and customization(Deighton and Kornfeld 2009; Wollan et al. 2017). In academic research and marketing practice, these incongruities have been attributed to tradeoffs, generally referredto as the privacy calculus or privacy paradox. The privacycalculusis a theory in which personal information is treatedas a commodity with an individual’s choice of revealing orconcealing it positioned as a rational decision involving theunderstanding of risk and reward (Culnan and Armstrong1999). The privacy paradoxdescribes the seeming contra-diction between an online user’s claim to having privacyconcerns while acting in ways that are inconsistent with theirconcerns (Barnes 2006). Numerous studies about onlineshopping and social media provide evidence of support forthe privacy paradox and acknowledge the privacy calculus. Our research investigates a new perspective on personal datasharing and collection as a follow-up to a prior qualitativestudy of connected consumer shopping behaviors. Consistent with the privacy paradox, we found that online behaviors contradicted participants’ expressed privacy concerns. However, we were intrigued by participant claims of havingneither control nor choice over whether to share their personal data andalso participate fully in digital life. Althoughsome statements suggested a sense of resignation akin tothose found by Turow, Hennessy, and Draper (2015, p. 3)who claim it occurs “when a person believes an undesirableoutcome is inevitable and feels powerless to stop it,” manyothers implied a fait accompli; something that has alreadyhappened or been decided before those affected hear aboutit, leaving them with no option but to accept (Google 2018).Therefore, we propose consumers are more accepting than they are resigned, and that acceptance may be a middleground between the privacy paradox and privacy calculus atone end and resignation at the other. We explored this theme by asking: What explains consumeracceptance of personal data collection online? We suggest itis explained, in part, by consumer attitudes toward privacyconcerns, perceived value of online personalization, personal interest in internet information, and perceptions offairness in exchanges or tradeoffs involving their personaldata collection. We also sought to understand whether onlineshopping experience, age, having been a victim of privacyinvasion, and awareness of personal data breaches asannounced by Chipotle, Verizon, Kmart, Google, Equifax,and others in the weeks and months preceding our surveydata collection, had any impact. Although privacy paradox and privacy calculus researchfocuses heavily on consumer willingness to make tradeoffs,consumer acceptance has not been studied much, if at all, inthe context of personal data sharing and collection. We analyzed survey responses of 790 men and women representingfour generations; all heavy internet/mobile users. Ourresearch contributes to the limited understanding about thistopic with insights advancing academic literature and benefiting practitioners. A summary of our efforts and findingsfollow.