Digital technologies: tensions in privacy and data

Abstract

Driven by data proliferation, digital technologies have transformed the marketing landscape. In parallel, significant privacy concerns have shaken consumer–firm relationships, prompting changes in both regulatory interventions and people’s own privacy-protective behaviors. With a comprehensive analysis of digital technologies and data strategy informed by structuration theory and privacy literature, the authors consider privacy tensions as the product of firm–consumer interactions, facilitated by digital technologies. This perspective in turn implies distinct consumer, regulatory, and firm responses related to data protection. By consolidating various perspectives, the authors propose three tenets and seven propositions, supported by interview insights from senior managers and consumer informants, that create a foundation for understanding the digital technology implications for firm performance in contexts marked by growing privacy worries and legal ramifications. On the basis of this conceptual framework, they also propose a data strategy typology across two main strategic functions of digital technologies: data monetization and data sharing. The result is four distinct types of firms, which engage in disparate behaviors in the broader ecosystem pertaining to privacy issues. This article also provides directions for research, according to a synthesis of findings from both academic and practical perspectives.

Assessing Identity Disclosure Risk in the Absence of Identified Datasets in the Public Domain

“…Some regions, especially the Western countries, have had a lot of research in the area of anonymisation and disclosure risk (Antoniou et al, 2022;Farzanehfar et al, 2021;Santu et al, 2018;Sweeney et al, 2017Sweeney et al, , 2018Xia et al, 2021;Yoo et al, 2018), but the same cannot be said of Kenya in East Africa. While many Western countries have had data protection laws in place (Quach et al, 2022), enabling them to release data in the public domain, Kenya enacted such a law in November 2019 (Parliament, 2019). Data release, more so in the public domain, was still relatively new at the time of this study.…”

“…Most countries have a data protection legal framework requiring data to be anonymised before it is released to third parties or the general public. Examples of such legal frameworks include the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Canadian Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA) (Antoniou et al, 2022;Quach et al, 2022;. Along the same line, Kenya enacted the data protection act in November 2019 (Parliament, 2019).…”

Impact of Personality Traits and Information Privacy Concern on E-Learning Environment Adoption during COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Investigation

“…It is well documented that individuals' CFIP revolves around technology innovation. As the organization adopted new technologies for exchanging individuals' information, the concern for information privacy started to accelerate [15,16]. The increasing number of requests for information and intentionally or unintentionally disclosing personal information to third parties increases individuals' privacy concerns regarding storage and access to information [16].…”

“…As the organization adopted new technologies for exchanging individuals' information, the concern for information privacy started to accelerate [15,16]. The increasing number of requests for information and intentionally or unintentionally disclosing personal information to third parties increases individuals' privacy concerns regarding storage and access to information [16]. Additionally, educational research has raised concerns about students' psychological concerns as they have had to suddenly switch to online learning from a face-to-face system, which raises a privacy concern among students.…”

Zero party data between hype and hope

“…Recent attempts to navigate the tensions between relevance, technology and privacy have produced a substantial body of literature and continue to motivate scholars and practitioners working in this space (Elizabeth et al, 2016 ; Karwatzki et al, 2017 ). Interestingly, a proposal that was recently made is to reimagine consumer information exchanges by using so-called zero-party data (ZPD) disclosures (Martin and Palmatier, 2020 ; Schmidt et al, 2020 ; Hall, 2021 ; Krafft et al, 2021 ; Mishra, 2021 ; Quach et al, 2022 ). ZPD refers to information that consumers knowingly and willingly provide to retailers in exchange for more meaningful personalization.…”