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Fields Changed

Registration

Field Before After
Trial Status in_development completed
Last Published September 09, 2019 09:59 AM January 05, 2022 01:29 PM
Study Withdrawn No
Data Collection Complete Yes
Keyword(s) Education Education
Building on Existing Work No
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Papers

Field Before After
Paper Abstract Personal data increasingly serve as inputs to public goods. Like other types of contributions to public goods, personal data are likely to be underprovided. We investigate whether classical remedies to underprovision are also applicable to personal data and whether the privacy-sensitive nature of personal data must be additionally accounted for. In a randomized field experiment on a public online education platform, we prompt users to complete their profiles with personal information. Compared to a control message, we find that making public benefits salient increases the number of personal data contributions significantly. This effect is even stronger when additionally emphasizing privacy protection, especially for sensitive information. Our results further suggest that emphasis on both public benefits and privacy protection attracts personal data from a more diverse set of contributors.
Paper Citation Ackfeld, V., Rohloff, T., & Rzepka, S. (2021). Increasing personal data contributions for the greater public good: A field experiment on an online education platform. Behavioural Public Policy, 1-27. doi:10.1017/bpp.2021.39
Paper URL https://www.doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2021.39
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