The disconnection between privacy notices and information disclosure: an online experiment

Abstract

We studied whether changes to the online environment, i.e. nudges, can lead to changes in privacy behaviour through an on-line experiment (n = 3229) across four European countries. The output measures were obtained through the answers to a questionnaire following a mock online exercise: one revealed the amount of personal information participants were willing to disclose, and the other whether they noticed a privacy policy link. The nudges appeared as changes in the design of a mock search engine (e.g. including an anthropomorphic character, highlighting prior browsing history or changing the look-and-feel to convey greater informality). The nudges did not lead to differences in the amount of personal information disclosed, but did affect whether participants noticed the privacy link or not. Socio-demographic factors were relevant. Compared to younger participants, older participants were less likely to reveal personal information but more likely to notice the privacy policy link. Men were more likely to reveal personal information than women, and more likely to notice the privacy policy link. Finally, significant differences were found between all countries. Participants from Italy chose to reveal least personal information (followed by those in Poland, Germany and the UK), and participants from the UK were significantly less likely to notice the privacy policy link. The implications for policy are that disclosure of personal information is resilient to small changes in the web environment, but this is not the case for awareness of a privacy policy link. Moreover, the fact that age, gender, and country of residence are relevant suggests that differentiated policy approaches depending on the target population may be warranted.

Privacy nudges for disclosure of personal information: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis

“…Meanwhile, other research has failed to show that presentation nudges, including changes in the design of search engines [45], hard to read fonts [46] and increased transparency in the provision of information regarding data processing [47], have an effect on the amount of information being shared during privacy decision making. Contradictory findings are offered by other studies investigating the effects of design features, such as the use of an anthropomorphic character and the length of security messages embedded in notification messages, showing that they can effectively reduce the amount of personal sensitive information that an online consumer is sharing [48].…”

Users’ Information Disclosure Behaviors during Interactions with Chatbots: The Effect of Information Disclosure Nudges

“…On the surface, sharing personal information online may seem acceptable to users. Giving up some privacy in exchange for service personalization can be interpreted as a well-considered, even logical, consumer decision [14,15]. However, even if users are aware of this trade-off, they may still end up making decisions to disclose information that they subsequently come to regret [14,16,17].…”

“…Giving up some privacy in exchange for service personalization can be interpreted as a well-considered, even logical, consumer decision [14,15]. However, even if users are aware of this trade-off, they may still end up making decisions to disclose information that they subsequently come to regret [14,16,17]. Users are not always aware of when and how data collection happens during their interactions with a company and how this data will subsequently be used [18].…”

“…Yet, the current ethical guidelines provided by governments fail to provide practical tactics that are proven to make users aware of-and potentially influence-their information disclosure behaviors [19]. Arguably, some privacy notices exist, providing users with information on "how and for which purpose their data will be collected, used and managed" [14] (p. 434). However, in reality, users tend to rarely read those notices [20].…”

“…Information is commonly disclosed by users while surfing online and is characterized by being routine and directed by fast thinking [27]. As a result, attempts to direct or influence this behavior in chatbot interactions should focus on cues triggering automatic thinking (i.e., peripheral) rather than intentional (i.e., central) thinking [14,28]. Information disclosure is also known to be malleable.…”