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Alessandro Acquisti (CMU) Of Frogs and Herds: Behavioral Economics, Malleable Privacy Valuations, and Context-dependent Willingness to Divulge Personal Information (Maxwell Dworkin 119)
We investigate privacy valuations and decision making through the lenses of behavioral economics. Contrary to the assumption in much social science that people have stable, coherent preferences with...
We investigate privacy valuations and decision making through the lenses of behavioral economics. Contrary to the assumption in much social science that people have stable, coherent preferences with respect to personal privacy, we find that privacy valuations (measured by willingness to trade-off personal information for monetary rewards) and concerns about privacy (measured by divulgence of private information) are highly sensitive to subtle, non-normative contextual factors. We report results from a number of experiments, one of which was designed to measure individual willingness to pay money to protect, and willingness to accept money to divulge, personal data; while others were designed to elicit or to suppress privacy concerns. This research raises questions about whether individuals are able to navigate in a self-interested fashion increasingly complex issues of privacy in modern information economies.
Upcoming talks
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3/11: Scott Dynes, Dartmouth
3/18: Paul Ohm, Colorado Law Sch.
4/1: Katherine Shilton, UCLA
4/8: Stuart Schechter, Microsoft & Serge Egelman CMU
4/15: Mike Collins, Redjack
4/22: Stefan Savage, UCSD