What matters to users?: factors that affect users' willingness to share information with online advertisers

Abstract

Much of the debate surrounding online behavioral advertising (OBA) has centered on how to provide users with notice and choice. An important element left unexplored is how advertising companies' privacy practices affect users' attitudes toward data sharing. We present the results of a 2,912-participant online study investigating how facets of privacy practices---data retention, access to collected data, and scope of use---affect users' willingness to allow the collection of behavioral data. We asked participants to visit a health website, explained OBA to them, and outlined policies governing data collection for OBA purposes. These policies varied by condition. We then asked participants about their willingness to permit the collection of 30 types of information. We identified classes of information that most participants would not share, as well as classes that nearly half of participants would share. More restrictive data-retention and scope-of-use policies increased participants' willingness to allow data collection. In contrast, whether the data was collected on a well-known site and whether users could review and modify their data had minimal impact. We discuss public policy implications and improvements to user interfaces to align with users' privacy preferences.