UROP Project

Evil Nudges and Privacy Risk Perceptions of Smart Products

Data has become a valuable source of value creation for many companies. Hence, companies strive to collect as much data as possible to gain user insights and to finally monetize the collected data (e.g., higher sales through personalized advertisement, selling data to brokers, etc.). Data is collected using smart products, smartphone applications, and website tracking. According to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), companies need users' explicit consent to collect, process, and store data. Hence, it seems that users must be sharing their data voluntarily as they give their consent. The explanation of sharing behavior is based on the assumption that individuals make rational decisions. But behavioral economics has shown the bounded rationality of individuals and that decisions are prone to biases. Companies make use of individuals' inability to make rational decisions by using so-called "evil nudges" to trick users into sharing more data than in line with their preferences.

Task

1. Supporting research on "evil nudges" for privacy behavior and decision making. 2. Data collection (e.g, collecting examples for evil nudges).

Requirements

SPSS or STATA would be great but not necessary. Highly motivated and eager to learn :)