The impact of compensation on information ownership and privacy control

Abstract

Purpose – The question over who “owns” and controls consumer data on the internet is emerging as an important issue as individuals increasingly share more of their personal information with marketers in return for services and benefits. This paper aims to examine how compensating consumers for their personal information affects their expectations for data ownership and privacy control. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conduct two online scenario-based experiments with a sample of adult consumers. The results were analyzed using multivariate and univariate analysis of variance. Findings – The findings show that receiving compensation, especially when it is a monetary reward, reduces consumer expectations for privacy protection. These effects depend on whether the information provided to marketers is perceived to be sensitive in nature. Originality/value – While a number of privacy studies have investigated the effects of compensation on encouraging self-disclosure on the internet, there is a lack of research that examines the effect of compensation on privacy expectations. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to test empirically the construct of information ownership in the context of privacy exchanges.