The personalization–privacy paradox in the attention economy

Abstract

The personalization–privacy paradox persists because consumers appreciate the value of personalization, yet marketers’ exploitation of consumers’ personal information to provide such personalization raises privacy concerns. Consumers then may refuse to provide personal information, which limits personalization efforts. Attempts to rely on information technology (e.g., anonymizing techniques, peer-to-peer communication) to address privacy concerns largely have proven ineffective, often because they are overly sophisticated for consumers. Thus, even if the personalization–privacy paradox seemingly arose with mobile technologies, it must stem from a theoretical foundation. Prior information systems literature tends to adopt micro-oriented theories to understand the paradox, but this perspective article instead seeks to investigate the personalization–privacy paradox at a macro level, with an attention economy lens. By investigating the relationship among personalization, privacy, and attention, this study seeks to offer insights pertaining to the ecology of attention, choice architectures, and stylistic devices, as well as some relevant implications for research and practice.