The Digital Privacy Paradox and Choice Architecture: Evidence from an Experiment in Fintech
通过MIT向本科生分发比特币的实地实验，发现微小导航成本会显著影响消费者隐私保护选择，且无关但令人安心的隐私信息会降低消费者避免监控的意愿。
‘Notice and Choice’ has been a mainstay of policies designed to safeguard consumer privacy. This paper investigates distortions in consumer behavior when faced with notice and choice which may limit the ability of consumers to safeguard their privacy. We use data derived from a field experiment at MIT that distributed a new product, Bitcoin, to all undergraduates. There are two primary findings. First, small navigation costs have a tangible effect on how privacy-protective consumers’ choices are, often in sharp contrast with individual stated preferences about privacy. Second, the introduction of irrelevant, but reassuring, information about privacy protection makes consumers less likely to avoid surveillance, regardless of their stated preferences toward privacy.