Frontiers: The Intended and Unintended Consequences of Privacy Regulation for Consumer Marketing
Published Online:5 Aug 2025https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2024.0901
References
- (2024) The economics of privacy at a crossroads. Goldfarb A, Tucker C, eds. The Economics of Privacy (University of Chicago Press, Chicago), 21–71.Google Scholar
- (2020) Secrets and likes: The drive for privacy and the difficulty of achieving it in the digital age. J. Consumer Psych. 30(4):736–758.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2016) The economics of privacy. J. Econom. Literature 54(2):442–492.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2016) The impact of privacy regulation and technology incentives: The case of health information exchanges. Management Sci. 62(4):1042–1063.Link, Google Scholar
- (2019) Economic policy for artificial intelligence. Innovation Policy Econom. 19:139–159.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Discrimination through optimization: How Facebook’s ad delivery can lead to biased outcomes. Proc. ACM Human-Comput. Interactions 3(CSCW):1–30.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Food deserts and the causes of nutritional inequality. Quart. J. Econom. 134(4):1793–1844.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2023) Stacking up the benefits: Lessons from India’s digital journey. IMF Working paper, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC, https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2023/03/31/Stacking-up-the-Benefits-Lessons-from-Indias-Digital-Journey-531692.Google Scholar
- (2024) Evaluating the impact of privacy regulation on e-commerce firms: Evidence from Apple’s App Tracking Transparency. Preprint, submitted February 5, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4698374.Google Scholar
- (2023) Scoring a touchdown with variable pricing: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in the NFL ticket markets. Management Sci. 69(8):4435–4456.Link, Google Scholar
- (2022) Eliminating unintended bias in personalized policies using bias-eliminating adapted trees (BEAT). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 119(11):e2115293119.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) Americans and privacy: Concerned, confused and feeling lack of control over their personal information. Pew Res. Center (November 15), https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/.Google Scholar
- (2024) ATT vs. personalized ads: User’s data sharing choices under Apple’s divergent consent strategies. USC CLASS Research Paper No. 24–26, University of Southern California Center for Law & Social Science, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
- (2015) The limits of price discrimination. Amer. Econom. Rev. 105(3):921–957.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) On the alignment of consumer surplus and total surplus under competitive price discrimination. Working paper, Yale University, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
- (2024) European data act—Key provisions and their implications. Accessed May 15, 2024, https://www.bdo.co.uk/en-gb/insights/advisory/risk-and-advisory-services/european-data-act-key-provisions-and-their-implications#.Google Scholar
- (2023) Consumer surveillance and financial fraud. NBER Working Paper No. 31692, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2023) Executive order on the safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of artificial intelligence. Accessed May 15, 2024, https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/10/30/executive-order-on-the-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence/.Google Scholar
- (2022) A critical review on the use (and misuse) of differential privacy in machine learning. ACM Comput. Surveys 55(8):1–16.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2021) How costly is noise? Data and disparities in consumer credit. Preprint, submitted May 17, https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.07554.Google Scholar
- (2020) Consumer privacy and the future of data-based innovation and marketing. Internat. J. Res. Marketing 37(3):466–480.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) The case for researching applied privacy enhancing technologies. NBER Working Paper No. 32909, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2009) Brand history, geography, and the persistence of brand shares. J. Political Econom. 117(1):87–115.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) Millennials and the takeoff of craft brands: Preference formation in the United States beer industry. Marketing Sci. 41(4):710–732.Link, Google Scholar
- (2021) On the privacy risks of algorithmic fairness. IEEE Eur. Sympos. Security Privacy (EuroS&P) (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ), 292–303.Google Scholar
- Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse (2022) Resource: Justice Department secures groundbreaking settlement agreement with Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, to resolve allegations of discriminatory advertising. Accessed May 15, 2024, https://clearinghouse.net/resource/3807/.Google Scholar
- (2020) How “notice and consent” fails to protect our privacy. New Amer. (March 23), https://www.newamerica.org/oti/blog/how-notice-and-consent-fails-to-protect-our-privacy/.Google Scholar
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (2022) CFPB targets unfair discrimination in consumer finance. Press release, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
- Council of Economic Advisors (2014) Big data: Seizing opportunities, preserving values. Report, Council of Economic Advisors, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
- Council of Economic Advisors (2015) Big data and differential pricing. Report, Council of Economic Advisors, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
- (2023) Meta’s ad revenue share vastly exceeds its share of consumer time. eMarketer (July 28), https://www.emarketer.com/content/meta-s-ad-revenue-share-vastly-exceeds-its-share-of-consumer-time.Google Scholar
- (2018) Changing their tune: How consumers’ adoption of online streaming affects music consumption and discovery. Marketing Sci. 37(1):5–21.Link, Google Scholar
- (2024) Digital advertising and market structure: Implications for privacy regulation. NBER Working Paper No. 32726, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2019) Uniform pricing in us retail chains. Quart. J. Econom. 134(4):2011–2084.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Data, privacy laws and firm production: Evidence from the GDPR. NBER Working Paper No. 32146, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2022) Privacy at what cost? Using electronic medical records to recover lapsed patients into HIV care. Goldfarb A, Tucker C, eds. Proc. NBER Workshop Econom. Privacy (National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
- (2022) Hold credit reporting companies accountable for incorrect reports and shoddy service. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (January 5), https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/hold-credit-reporting-companies-accountable-incorrect-reports-shoddy-service.Google Scholar
- (2023) Personalized pricing and consumer welfare. J. Political Econom. 131(1):131–189.Crossref, Google Scholar
- eMarketer Editors (2019) CPG industry struggles to find growth—eMarketer trends, forecasts & statistics. Accessed July 27, 2025, https://www.emarketer.com/content/cpg-industry-struggles-to-find-growth.Google Scholar
- (2023) Key findings about Americans and data privacy. Pew Res. Center (October 18), https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/18/key-findings-about-americans-and-data-privacy/.Google Scholar
- Federal Trade Commission (2024) A look behind the screens: Examining the data practices of social media and video streaming services. Report, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
- (1988) Self-generated validity and other effects of measurement on belief, attitude, intention, and behavior. J Appl. Psych. 73(3):421–435.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) The information value of online social networks: Lessons from peer-to-peer lending. Internat. J. Indust. Organ. 51:185–222.Crossref, Google Scholar
- GDPR (2020) General data protection regulation. Accessed May 15, 2024, https://gdpr.eu/tag/gdpr/.Google Scholar
- (2023) Effectively combining the event and aggregate summary reports from the privacy sandbox attribution reporting API for improving ad-measurement fidelity. Technical report, Google Ads. Accessed July 27, 2025, https://github.com/google/ads-privacy/blob/master/Combining%20the%20Event%20and%20Aggregate%20Summary%20Reports%20from%20the%20Privacy%20Sandbox%20Attribution%20Reporting%20API.pdf.Google Scholar
- (2022) Segmented pricing for fines and fees. Accessed May 15, 2024, https://www.gfoa.org/materials/segmented-pricing.Google Scholar
- (2023) The economics of digital privacy. Annual Rev. Econom. 15:267–286.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2011) Privacy regulation and online advertising. Management Sci. 57(1):57–71.Link, Google Scholar
- (2012) Privacy and innovation. Innovation Policy Econom. 12(1):65–90.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Inequality, privacy and digital market design. Kominers S, Teytelboym A, eds. Fair by Design (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK).Google Scholar
- Google (2022) The privacy sandbox: Technology for a more private web. Accessed May 15, 2024, https://privacysandbox.com.Google Scholar
- (2022) Balancing data privacy and usability in the federal statistical system. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 119(31):e2104906119.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2017) Attitude strength. Annual Rev. Psych. 68:327–351.Crossref, Google Scholar
- Information Commissioners Office (2024) Case studies and examples. Accessed January 15, 2025, https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-sharing/case-studies-and-examples.Google Scholar
- (2022) GDPR and the lost generation of innovative apps. NBER Working Paper No. 30028, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- (2024) Consumers’ perceived privacy violations in online advertising. Working paper, Marketing Science Institute, New York.Google Scholar
- (2021) The short-run effects of the general data protection regulation on technology venture investment. Marketing Sci. 40(4):661–684.Link, Google Scholar
- (2024) Economic research on privacy regulation: Lessons from the GDPR and beyond. Goldfarb A, Tucker C eds. The Economics of Privacy (University of Chicago Press, Chicago), 5–15.Google Scholar
- (2002) Defaults, framing and privacy: Why opting in-opting out. Marketing Lett. 13(1):5–15.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2022) Privacy-centric digital advertising: Implications for research. Customer Needs Solutions 9(1):49–54.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2020) Consumer privacy choice in online advertising: Who opts out and at what cost to industry? Marketing Sci. 39(1):33–51.Link, Google Scholar
- (2023) Privacy and market concentration: Intended and unintended consequences of the GDPR. Management Sci. 69(10):5695–5721.Link, Google Scholar
- (2024) COPPAcalypse? The YouTube settlement’s impact on kid’s content. Preprint, submitted May 1, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4430334.Google Scholar
- (2017) Measuring biases in a data broker’s coverage. Proc. FTC Conf. (FTC, Washington, DC).Google Scholar
- (2019) Online advertising delivers BIG benefits for small businesses. SBE Council (September 10), https://sbecouncil.org/2019/09/10/online-advertising-delivers-big-benefits-for-small-businesses/.Google Scholar
- (2023) The impact of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency on app monetization. Working paper, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.Google Scholar
- (2023) The privacy-bias tradeoff: Data minimization and racial disparity assessments in US government. Proc. 2023 ACM Conf. Fairness Accountability Transparency (Association for Computing Machinery, New York), 492–505.Google Scholar
- (2023) Does privacy undermine content provision and consumption? Evidence from educational YouTube channels. Working paper, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.Google Scholar
- (2024) Privacy-enhanced versus traditional retargeting: Ad effectiveness in an industry-wide field experiment. Preprint, submitted November 8, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4972368.Google Scholar
- (2020) Identification and formal privacy guarantees. Preprint, submitted June 25, https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.14732.Google Scholar
- (2023) Balancing user privacy and personalization. Working paper, Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, Evanston, IL.Google Scholar
- (2019) Algorithmic bias? An empirical study of apparent gender-based discrimination in the display of STEM career ads. Management Sci. 65(7):2966–2981.Link, Google Scholar
- (2024) Apparent algorithmic discrimination and real-time algorithmic learning in digital search advertising. Quant. Marketing Econom. 22:357–387.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2011) Stuck in the adoption funnel: The effect of interruptions in the adoption process on usage. Marketing Sci. 30(2):355–367.Link, Google Scholar
- (2023) Privacy concerns and social desirability bias. Internat. J. Marketing Res. 66(4):428–450.Google Scholar
- (2024) Who benefits from alternative data for credit scoring? Evidence from Peru. Preprint, submitted June 5, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4852032.Google Scholar
- (2022) Valuing intrinsic and instrumental preferences for privacy. Marketing Sci. 41(4):663–681.Link, Google Scholar
- (2025) Choice architecture, privacy valuations, and selection bias in consumer data. Marketing Sci. Epub ahead of print March 17, https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2023.0373.Link, Google Scholar
- (2008) The cost of reading privacy policies. J. Law Policy Inform. Soc. 4(4):543–568.Google Scholar
- (2009) Privacy protection and technology diffusion: The case of electronic medical records. Management Sci. 55(7):1077–1093.Link, Google Scholar
- (2011) Can health care information technology save babies? J. Political Econom. 119(2):289–324.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2018) Privacy protection, personalized medicine, and genetic testing. Management Sci. 64(10):4648–4668.Link, Google Scholar
- (2020) Algorithmic nudges. Working paper, University of Chicago, Chicago.Google Scholar
- (2021) Do nudges reduce disparities? Choice architecture compensates for low consumer knowledge. J. Marketing 85(4):67–84.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2019) When words sweat: Identifying signals for loan default in the text of loan applications. J. Marketing Res. 56(6):960–980.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Data deserts and black boxes: The impact of socio-economic status on consumer profiling. Management Sci. 70(11):8003–8029.Link, Google Scholar
- (2024) To fight surveillance pricing, we need privacy first. Electronic Frontier Foundation (August 5), https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/08/fight-surveillance-pricing-we-need-privacy-first.Google Scholar
- (2025) Europe’s GDPR privacy law is headed for red tape bonfire within ‘weeks.’ Politico (April 3), https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-gdpr-privacy-law-europe-president-ursula-von-der-leyen/.Google Scholar
- (2024) ATT opt-in rates in 2024 & best practices to increase them. Accessed January 23, 2025, https://maf.ad/en/blog/att-opt-in-rates-boost/.Google Scholar
- (2022) Regulatory spillovers and data governance: Evidence from the GDPR. Marketing Sci. 41(4):746–768.Link, Google Scholar
- (2024) Where’s Waldo? A framework for quantifying the privacy-utility tradeoff in marketing applications. Internat. J. Res. Marketing 41(3):529–546.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2005) Websites that charge different customers different prices: Is their ‘price customization’ illegal? Should it be? FindLaw (June 20), https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/websites-that-charge-different-customers-different-prices.html.Google Scholar
- (2015) Privacy tradeoffs in smartphone applications. Econom. Lett. 137:171–175.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (1980) Public opinion and public ignorance: The fine line between attitudes and nonattitudes. Amer. J. Sociol. 85(5):1214–1225.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2007) Price discrimination and imperfect competition. Armstrong M, Porter RH, eds. Handbook of Industrial Organization, vol. 3 (North-Holland, Amsterdam), 2221–2299.Google Scholar
- (2023) The value of personal data in internet commerce: A high-stakes field experiment on data regulation policy. Management Sci. 70(4):2645–2660.Link, Google Scholar
- (1991) Sunk Costs and Market Structure: Price Competition, Advertising, and the Evolution of Concentration (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar
- (2021) Nudge: The Final Edition (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT).Google Scholar
- (2023) Algorithmic exclusion: The fragility of algorithms to sparse and missing data. Report, Brookings Center on Regulation and Markets, Washington, DC, 1–26.Google Scholar
- (2024) The economics of privacy: An agenda. Goldfarb A, Tucker CE, eds. Economics of Privacy (University of Chicago Press, Chicago), 1–4.Google Scholar
- (2023) Does IT lead to more equal treatment? An empirical study of the effect of smartphone use on customer complaint resolution. Preprint, submitted July 12, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4499402.Google Scholar
- U.S. GAO (2022) Consumer data: Increasing use poses risks to privacy. Accessed March 25, 2024, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-106096.Google Scholar
- (2019) (Un)informed consent: Studying GDPR consent notices in the field. Proc. 2019 ACM SIGSAC Conf. Comput. Comm. Security (Association for Computing Machinery, New York), 973–990.Google Scholar
- (2005) The demographics of the do-not-call list [security of data]. IEEE Security Privacy 3(1):34–39.Crossref, Google Scholar
- (2024) Estimating the value of offsite data to advertisers: Evidence from Meta. Marketing Sci. 44(2):268–286.Link, Google Scholar
- (2023) The promise and limitations of formal privacy. WIREs Comput. Statist. 15(6):e1615.Crossref, Google Scholar

