The short answer is, privacy is absolutely not dead, in fact, concerns about privacy are at its greatest in human history.
A common claim about data privacy in the recent days is “Privacy is dead”; both in the sense that privacy is no longer practically achievable, as well as that the concern for privacy is waning among consumers.
The term privacy paradox refers to the observed dichotomy between information privacy attitudes and actual behaviour. For example, when users express their concerns about privacy and share personal information online at the same time. The behaviour valuation argument contents that behaviour is the best metric to evaluate how much users care about their privacy. However, more recently, several recent studies have shown that the privacy paradox is a myth, and the behaviour of sharing personal information online cannot be generalised to mean that users do not have significant privacy concerns.
So do consumers really care about their privacy ?
Yes, they do care. Experimental results, field studies, general observations and survey results show that consumers indeed care a lot about protecting their privacy and often act on it deliberately to protect their privacy.
Most people instinctively engage in privacy preserving behaviour in the offline world, subconsciously. Lowering our voice during a phone call, leaving our desk to take a personal call, shutting the blinds in our bedrooms, and using incognito modes on our browsers are some of these behaviours. Peering into someone’s phone can elicit a range of reactions from rolling eyes to a telling off.
In the online world too, consumers continuous try to regulate the boundaries of their interactions with others and the extent of information being shared. We alternate between different email accounts for personal and professional to keep it segregated, clear browser histories, use ad blockers, turn off cookies, not use a website because it asks for personal details, post anonymous comments and delete things we post in the past.
Going past anecdotal information, there is overwhelming evidence in the form of survey results, field studies and experimental results for privacy-seeking behaviours from consumers.
Experimental Studies : In 2019, an experiment that involved asking people to share t heir Facebook profiles for money resulted in most people not taking up the researchers on their offer. Similarly, over 50% were not willing to exchange a $10 gift card for a $12 trackable gift card, refusing a 20% reward in exchange for privacy. Experiments show that reviewers were willing to pay 4% premium for products from more privacy oriented sellers. In a choice experiment conducted in 2015, participants were willing to pay from $1 to $4 in order to prevent their smartphone app from accessing browsing history, and contacts information.
Surveys: A seminal survey by Pew Research in 2013 found that an overwhelming majority of surveyed US adults (86%) reported having taken steps to mask their digital footprints. Several other surveys and interviews have found similar evidence of privacy seeking behaviour from consumers. A survey of 1500 homes by Instamotors found that 89% of respondents have taken at least one step in protecting their personal data, such as using a VPN while browsing. In 2015, an in-depth interview study found that 77% of non tech saavy consumers took some action to hide their digital traces online such as using anonymous search engines. The recent widespread reaction (53% US, 61% UK) from the public towards installing a Covid tracking app suggest a similar conclusion, that a majority of consumers are taking deliberate action towards protecting their digital privacy.
Field Studies: A 2019 study found that less than 6% of users opt-in consent for data collection following the GDPR ruling. In a 2018 study, 41% of users were found to have used incognito or private browsing to hide their digital footprint. Other studies have shown that user behaviour is radically different to what was seen in the early 2000s when it comes to taking action to protect their online privacy. For instance, in 2005 less than 3% of facebook users had changed their privacy settings, whereas in 2017, about 93% of users had changed their privacy setting to a more restrictive configuration. Similarly, in 2005, about 86% of Carnegie Mellon University network members were sharing their date of birth online, in 2017 less than 12% were doing so in public forums.
These evidence from field studies, survey results and experiments show emphatically that a majority of users do take deliberate steps to protect their privacy online.
Now that we have established that consumers do take actions to protect their privacy, why are they not doing a good job of it ?
Simply put, as Professor Daniel Solove in his recent critique on the privacy paradox, “managing one’s privacy is a vast, complex, and never-ending project that does not scale. Privacy regulation often seeks to give people more privacy self-management, but doing so will not protect privacy effectively”.
For instance, it is estimated that if an average consumer were to read all the privacy policies they encounter, they would need to spend about 201 hours each year just reading these agreements. Viewed as an individual task, it may seem irrational that a consumer is not reading a company’s privacy policy, but consumers must do this on a huge scale across hundreds of websites, apps and products. When consumers fail to put in such unrealistic effort into these self regulation activities, the are viewed as not caring for their privacy as these are simple steps viewed in isolation.
The overwhelming evidence in recent studies find that when presented with a privacy preserving option, a majority of consumers will choose the option that offers them greater privacy with less intrusive data collection practices.
Privacy is not dead, on the contrary, its more alive than ever.
