The Willingness to Sell Personal Data

Abstract

We assess the individual willingness to sell personal data in laboratory experiments. Our experiments are novel in that (i) the experiments are incentivized, (ii) the focus on privacy issues is salient, and (iii) the use of the data is transparent and unambiguous. We find considerable heterogeneity in the data: roughly one in six participants refuse to sell personal data at all and a similar fraction sell their data for €2.50 or less—our results contrast with those from hypothetical questionnaires. Those willing to sell request, on average, €15 for their contact details and €19 for their Facebook data. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved