seminar: Of Frogs and Herds
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Monday, April 6, 2009 |
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Of Frogs and Herds: Behavioral Economics, Malleable Privacy Valuations, and Context-dependent Willingness to Divulge Personal Information |
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Alessandro Acquisti, Faculty, CyLab |
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12:00pm |
Talk Abstract
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 contextual factors. We report results from a number of experiments, one of which was designed to measure individual willingness to pay to protect and willingness to accept 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.
Speaker Bio
Alessandro Acquisti is an Assistant Professor of Information Technology and Public Policy at the H. John Heinz III College, Carnegie Mellon University, and a member of Carnegie Mellon Cylab. His work investigates the economic and social impact of IT, and in particular the economics of privacy and the behavioral economics of privacy and information security. His research in these areas has been disseminated through journals (including Marketing Science, Journal of Comparative Economics, IEEE Security & Privacy, and Rivista di Politica Economica); edited books ("Digital Privacy: Theory, Technologies, and Practices.'' Auerbach, 2007); book chapters; and presentations and keynotes at international conferences. His findings have been featured in media outlets such as NPR Fresh Air, NBC, MSNBC.com, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the New Scientist.