Consumer Consent and Firm Targeting after GDPR : The case of a Large Telecom Provider

Information Systems and Operations Management

Speaker : Miguel Godinho de Matos

Associate  Professor of Information Systems

Catolica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics (CLSBE)  

HEC Campus - Jouy-En-Josas - Buil. V - Room Bernard Ramanantsoa

 Abstract : 

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP) represents a dramatic shift in global privacy regulation. In this manuscript, we focus on the impact of GDPR's enhanced consumer consent requirements that focus

on transparent and active elicitation of data allowances. We evaluate the effect of enhanced consent on consumer opt-in behavior, and firm targeting after consent is solicited. Utilizing an experiment at a large telecommunications provider with operations in Europe, we find that opt-in for different data types and uses increased once GDPR-compliant consent was elicited. We also find that firm targeting, and household lock-in increased after consent elicitation. Our analysis suggests that these gains to the firm are because of the ability to utilize more targeted marketing campaigns after consumers provide additional data allowances. Our results have signifficant implications for firms and policymakers and provide insights relevant to the emerging debate on the balance between consumer privacy protection and firms' collection and use of personal information.

Key words : Privacy, Consent, General Data Protection Regulation, Field Experiment, Instrumental Variables, Panel Data

Bio :  

Miguel Godinho de Matos is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics (CLSBE). He also have a courtesy appointment as visiting research scientist at the Heinz College of Carnegie Mellon University where he is affiliated with the Initiative for Digital Entertainment and Analytics (IDEA).

His research agenda focus on studying how digitization changes consumer behavior and firm’s product distribution strategies and it clusters around two main topics: (1) the impact of digitization on creative industries’ outcomes; and (2) the analysis of social networks and peer influence on consumer behavior. He is specialised on the design and implementation of field experiments in industry contexts and on Big Data Analytics.