American Economic Review Vol. 102 No. 3 2012

Shifts in Privacy Concerns

Avi Goldfarb¹; Catherine Tucker²

¹ Associate Professor of Marketing, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, 105 St. George St., Toronto, Ontario. · ² Associate Professor of Marketing, MIT Sloan School of Management, 100 Main St., Cambridge, MA.

Abstract

This paper explores how digitization and the associated use of customer data have affected the evolution of consumer privacy concerns. We measure privacy concerns by reluctance to disclose income in an online marketing research survey. Using over three million responses over eight years, our data show: (1) Refusals to reveal information have risen over time, (2) Older people are less likely to reveal information, and (3) The difference between older and younger people has increased over time. Our results suggest that the trends over time are partly due to broadening perceptions of the contexts in which privacy is relevant.

DOI

10.1257/aer.102.3.349

Volume

102

Issue

3

Pages

349-353

Language

en

Sources

crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex

Cite

APA 7 MLA 9 Chicago (author–date) Harvard Elsevier Harvard (JFE, JBF…) The Accounting Review Academy of Management American Marketing Association INFORMS (Management Science) Copy citation Copied ✓