Marketing implications of privacy concerns in the US and Canada

Abstract

PurposeIncreasing availability of data obtained via the internet and the proliferation of direct mail advertising provides tremendous opportunities for marketers to reach their customers. However, increased risks to the personal privacy of consumers, and attention in the media to these risks, provide unique challenges. Companies and especially direct marketers are finding that they need to change their tactics to deal with the increase in consumer concerns and privacy‐protecting behaviors. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approachUsing the results of a multinational privacy survey, the paper examines consumer privacy concerns and privacy‐protecting behaviors in the USA and Canada. It uses factor analysis and multiple regression techniques to analyze the data.FindingsWhile consumer concerns about privacy are essentially the same between the two countries, the privacy‐protecting behaviors differed significantly. The paper also suggests that demographic variables influence a consumer's level of concern and likelihood to take privacy‐protecting behaviors.Research limitations/implicationsThe behaviors in the paper are self‐reported and therefore potentially subject to self‐desirability bias. Also, missing data limited the ability to test for the impact of income.Practical implicationsThe paper provides recommendations for marketers to address customer concerns and behaviors such as providing greater transparency and use of privacy seals.Originality/valueInternational companies face even greater challenges with regard to privacy issues and related customer behaviors due to cultural and governmental policy differences. This paper provides some guidelines for companies that need to provide privacy protection to customers from a variety of cultures.

Privacy concerns about information sharing as trade-off for personalized news

“…There is a significant relationship between the level of agreement with the statement about personalized news and privacy and three of the demographic variables: age (significant at p<0.01), gender, and income (significant at p<0.05). There is no relationship with educational level, which differs from the results of studies in other countries (Pope;Lowen, 2009), although the lower educational options had less than 100 cases, which can affect the Chi-squared test (Norušis, 1990).…”

“…The issue of privacy has been examined extensively in the area of direct marketing (Pope;Lowen, 2009), in health or family communication (Petronio, 2016), and as a main problem in our society generally (Morozov, 2013). It has also been studied for websites (Wu et al, 2012), social media (Marwick; Boyd, 2014; Yang; Pulido; Kang, 2016), and relating privacy with disclosure of personally identifiable information or intimacy (Sibilia, 2008;Tufekci, 2008;Tello, 2013;Zurbriggen;Hagai;Leon, 2016).…”

“…Privacy concerns have been connected to demographic variables such as age, educational level, income, and gender. In the area of direct marketing, older consumers in Canada were more likely to provide bad data to protect their personal information, although results differed in the USA (Pope;Lowen, 2009). In general, consumption studies have found that the youngest consumers do not mind being watched, even though they trust businesses much less than older consumers (Forbes Insights, 2013).…”

“…Education also has an impact on disclosure, with more highly educated people being less likely to take action to protect their privacy (Pope;Lowen, 2009). Income has also been linked to privacy concerns (Van-Doorn; Verhoef; Bijmolt, 2007).…”

“…Moreover, privacy, trust, control, and disclosure behaviors are all linked, but the relationship is complex (Taddei; Contena, 2013). Brands that give a greater feeling of control also increase trust, but the direction of causality is not yet clear (Pope;Lowen, 2009).…”