Putting Data Privacy Regulation into Action: The Differential Capabilities of Service Frontline Interfaces

Abstract

Service frontline encounters between customers and service providers have been subject to fundamental changes in recent years. As two major change agents, technology infusion and data privacy regulations are inextricably linked and constitute a critical ethical and societal issue. Specifically, service frontlines—as represented by human or technological agents, or some hybrid form—rely on customer data for service provision, which subjects them to privacy regulations governing the collection, submission, access, and use of any customer data thus captured. However, scant research outlines the significant implications of evolving data privacy regulations for service frontline encounters. To advance knowledge in this domain, this research distills six key dimensions of global data privacy regulations (fairness, data limits, transparency, control, consent, and recourse). Employing an intelligences theoretical lens, the authors theorize how these dimensions might become differentially manifest across three service frontline interface types (human-based, technology-based, and hybrid). Carefully intersecting the need for varying intelligences across data privacy regulatory dimensions with the abilities of service frontline interfaces to harness each intelligence type, this study offers a novel conceptual framework that advances research and practice. Theoretical, managerial, and policy implications unfold from the proposed framework, which also can inform a future research agenda.

Consumer vulnerability: understanding transparency and control in the online environment

“…While gossip theory provides insights into individuals' responses (e.g., vulnerability) to firms' privacy policies and practices (e.g., transparency and control) of gathering and usage of their personal information, it does not explain the underlying mechanisms regarding how and why individuals develop such responses. As suggested by a recent study in data privacy (Steinhoff and Martin, 2023), our present study argues that individuals' interpretations of whether firms' privacy policies and practices are just, and fair can serve as the underlying mechanisms of their response formation. Specifically, this study argues that key characteristics of firms' privacy policies and practices (i.e., transparency and control) are conceptualized as justice mechanisms (just and fair procedure of data collection, allocation, and interactive exchange) to address gossip (i.e., unsanctioned transmission of personal information) and thus mitigate the key negative outcome of gossip, consumer vulnerability.…”

Interfaces, Interactions, Time, and the Frontline Nexus: Foundational Constructs and Focus for the Field of Organizational Frontlines

“…Regulators have attempted to resolve the conflicting interests of firms and consumers, and they recognize that consumers may be powerless or uninformed about how to prevent data collection and misuse of their data (Steinhoff and Martin 2022). The European Union enacted the General Data Protection Regulation in 2016, followed by the Digital Markets and Digital Services Acts in 2022.…”