Nov 1 – Idris Adjerid to present “Consumer Consent and Firm Targeting after GDPR: The Case of a Large Telecom Provider”

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

by

 

Idris Adjerid

Associate Professor
Pamplin College of Business
Virginia Tech

Friday, November 1

10:30 – 12:00 pm | Speakman 200

Abstact:

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, revenue, and lock-in increased after consumer consent was elicited. 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 significant 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.