Personal data: how context shapes consumers’ data sharing with organizations from various sectors

Abstract

Data – in particular personal data – is becoming a critical asset in more and more industries beyond the Internet sector. Applications based on such data, to improve existing products and processes as well as to create completely new ones, are regarded as a major driver of economic growth. At the same time consumers’ concerns about the proper use of their data by organizations are growing. We conducted a conjoint study, comprising more than 3000 participants, to investigate consumers’ data sharing sensitivities along six dimensions of context and across ten private and public sectors covering the whole economy. We find that nearly all consumers (99.9 % of our sample) want to share personal data with organizations if the benefits and terms suffice their needs. Second, we show that consumers clearly discriminate between organizations from various industry sectors when it comes to their willingness to share their data. Third, we find that context of sharing personal data is more important in the consumers’ decision making than the actual data itself. Further, we provide evidence that the right to be forgotten can significantly increase consumers’ willingness to share their data.