Nudges to Privacy Behaviour: Exploring an Alternative Approach to Privacy Notices
Shara Monteleone Rene Van Bavel Nuria Priego Rodriguez Gabriele Esposito
2015
Abstract
The report seeks to bring behavioural research methods for privacy to the attention of EU policy-makers. It argues that changes in web interface design can be a useful policy alternative to the traditional 'privacy notice' approach. Specifically, it examines whether web interface design has effect on people's online privacy behaviour through an online experiment (n=3200) in four European countries. Results show that the presence of an anthropomorphic character leads to greater disclosure of personal information, both directly and passively; the presence of a privacy notice leads to greater direct information disclosure. Additional psychological constructs (such as subjects' awareness that they were revealing personal information) were also recorded, and a demographic analysis according to gender, age, education and country of residence carried out.
