Transparency and Control about Privacy in Data-Driven Online Services: An Investigation of Design Choices and Users' Data Disclosure Decision-Making

As modern online services are increasingly data-driven, users’ data disclosure is becoming a decisive factor for the success of companies' business models. Extensive disclosure of personal data raises concerns for users’ privacy that managers of online services and regulators need to address. Implementing transparency and control about an online service’s data practices has become the dominant approach to address these concerns. However, the effects of transparency and control on users’ data disclosure behavior have been found to be ambivalent. While some studies in the field of privacy research confirm that implementing transparency and control features can be an effective means to raise users’ willingness to disclose data, other studies have found only minuscule, and sometimes even opposing effects of transparency and control on users’ disclosure behavior. Such heterogeneous effects not only hinder estimating the consequences of regulatory and managerial efforts aimed at creating transparency and control but also impede generating clear guidelines on how to provide transparency and control in the most effective manner. A closer examination of individuals’ underlying decision-making mechanisms in response to provisions of transparency and control in disclosure decision scenarios may help to improve our understanding of the causes of diverging disclosure behavior. A better understanding of these underlying decisionmaking mechanisms will further help to assess specific designs of transparency and control features and their impact on the business models of online services as well as users’ privacy. Therefore, this thesis explores users’ decision-making mechanisms and behavioral reactions to the provision of transparency and control in data disclosure situations. The thesis consists of four essays that employ different research methods, including systematic literature reviews and quantitative studies. The findings of the essays contribute to a better understanding of the effects of transparency and control on user decision-making in the privacy domain by (1) offering conceptualizations that provide a lens for studying users’ decision-making processes and their disclosure behavior in reaction to transparency and control features (2) examining how different implementations of transparency and control features affect users’ decision-making processes and effort in decision-making which causes differences in users’ disclosure behavior, and (3) by investigating the effects of transparently communicated content and relevant pieces of information in so far underexplored data disclosure scenarios between users and a data-sharing firm network.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Universität Passau

Year

2025

Author dc:creator

• Sleziona, Philipp

Contributors dc:contributor

• Widjaja, Thomas
• Gerlach, Jin

• Transparency
• Control
• Privacy

Statement dc:rights

• Standardbedingung laut Einverständniserklärung

Repository record source_url

https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-passau/frontdoor/index/index/docId/1550

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kobv.de-opus4-uni-passau:1550