I’m happy to share that I’ve started a new position as a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Science, Technology and Society!

18. Our study confirms people take privacy seriously. Nearly 80% of respondents disagreed with the statement: I don’t care what online service providers do with my data. 87% believe that large online service providers know too much about us. 88% think tech companies should be more strictly regulated

10. How much do platforms earn from our data? Facebook’s average ad revenue per Polish user: 2.59 PLN. Google’s: 3.65 PLN

2.59 EUR may sound small. But multiplied by Facebook’s user base in Poland and then by 12 months, it’s over 681 milion PLN annually from Polish users’ data for just one company.

9. In our discrete choice experiment, users said they’d pay on average 3.89 EUR/month for Facebook not to access private data (like location), and 3.08 EUR/month for Google not to access such data.

8. For no profiling (e.g. platforms not “guessing” our sexual orientation or political views), users would pay 0.94 EUR/month on Facebook and 0.5 EUR on Google. For no ads at all: 0.89 EUR/month on Facebook and 0.98 EUR on Google.

7. Most importantly, the status quo option has negative value. In other words, in today’s situation, where platforms collect as much as they can, profile us, and show us targeted ads, users would expect compensation.
(Statistically significant only for Google.)

4. But is the problem important enough for users to actually pay for stronger privacy? Or, despite concerns, do we accept the loss of privacy as the price for valuable services like Google Search or Facebook?

An article by M. Bylicki, E. Zawojska and myself has just been published in Technology in Society.

We ask: Can stronger privacy protection for Facebook and Google users improve social welfare in Poland?