Abstract
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in 2018 in the EU aims to give consumers a high degree of control over their data online in order to allow them to protect their privacy. It also puts high transparency requirements for websites that collect and process data. In fact, consumers have to be informed about technical and legal aspects of data collection; this knowledge should empower them to consciously give or withdraw their consent for data collection. The current study investigates the empowering impact of technical and legal knowledge about online data collection within the theoretical framework of the Protection Motivation Theory, the Regulatory Focus Theory, and contextual integrity.An online experiment in which participants are exposed to a technical or legal knowledge intervention in either commercial or news website context shows that receiving both kinds of information leads to lower threat appraisal. At the same time, having legal knowledge empowers consumers: it positively impacts their coping appraisal and motivation to reject online data collection. The study findings raise questions about the current transparency requirements about data collection and highlight the importance of legal knowledge as well as law enforcement for online privacy protection of consumers.
Highlights
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in 2018 in the EU aims to give consumers a high degree of control over their data online in order to allow them to protect their privacy
As previous studies focused on generic knowledge measures and a limited set of privacy protective behaviors or children population, the current study aims to translate these findings to the GDPR context and investigates what the impact is of the information obligations on internet users’ rejection of tracking cookies, and how this impact can be explained
The current study aims to investi gate: 1) to what extent a knowledge intervention based on the GDPR will have an empowering impact when it comes to rejecting tracking cookies1; 2) how we can explain the empowerment through knowledge; 3) to what extent the two knowledge types affect consumer motivations and attitudes differently; and 4) to what extent the empowering impact of knowledge depends on context of data collection
Summary
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in 2018 in the EU aims to give consumers a high degree of control over their data online in order to allow them to protect their privacy. Agency of internet users is one of the central objectives of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduced in the European Union This regulation aims at giving con sumers a high degree of control over their data online in order to allow them to protect their privacy. Consumers are ex pected to be empowered to take informed decisions and give or withhold their consent for data collection and processing It remains unclear if the GDPR measures have the intended impact on agency and empowerment of users. Building on past findings we identify the need to investigate the impact of technical and legal knowledge on consumer empowerment online and to understand which factors explain whether people are Computers in Human Behavior 120 (2021) 106750 motivated to withhold their consent for having tracking cookies placed on their devices
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