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How much is privacy worth around the world and across platforms?

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  • Jeffrey T. Prince
  • Scott Wallsten

Abstract

Using carefully designed discrete choice surveys, we measure individuals' valuation of online privacy across countries (United States, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, and Germany) and data types (personal information on finances, biometrics, location, networks, communications, and web browsing). We find that Germans value privacy more than do people in the United States and Latin American countries. Across countries, people most value privacy for financial (bank balance) and biometric (fingerprint) information. People had to be paid the least for permission to receive ads—respondents in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico would even pay for them—followed by location privacy. We discuss privacy policy implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey T. Prince & Scott Wallsten, 2022. "How much is privacy worth around the world and across platforms?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 841-861, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:31:y:2022:i:4:p:841-861
    DOI: 10.1111/jems.12481
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    Cited by:

    1. Rhodes, Andrew & Zhou, Jidong, 2024. "Personalization and Privacy Choice," TSE Working Papers 24-1525, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Apr 2025.
    2. Aldasoro, Iñaki & Armantier, Olivier & Doerr, Sebastian & Gambacorta, Leonardo & Oliviero, Tommaso, 2024. "The gen AI gender gap," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    3. Paliński, Michał & Jusypenko, Bartosz & Hardy, Wojciech, 2025. "Behind the screens. Privacy and advertising preferences in VoD —the role of privacy concerns, persuasion knowledge, and experience," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    4. Aguirre De Mora, Florencia & Roseth, Benjamin & Santamaria, Julieth, 2024. "Does Reluctance to Share Personal Data Reduce Citizen Demand for Personalized Services? Evidence from a Survey Experiment," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13565, Inter-American Development Bank.
    5. Te Bao & John Duffy & Nobuyuki Hanaki, 2024. "Paying to Avoid the Spotlight," ISER Discussion Paper 1238, Institute of Social and Economic Research, The University of Osaka.
    6. Luca Zamparini, 2024. "Data, digital markets, and the economic value of privacy," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 15, pages 147-164, December.
    7. Agur, Itai & Ari, Anil & Dell’Ariccia, Giovanni, 2025. "Bank competition and household privacy in a digital payment monopoly," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    8. Guy Aridor & Rafael Jiménez-Durán & Ro'ee Levy & Lena Song, 2024. "The Economics of Social Media," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1422-1474, December.
    9. Syngjoo Choi & Bongseop Kim & Young Sik Kim & Ohik Kwon, 2025. "Central Bank Digital Currency And Privacy: A Randomized Survey Experiment," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 66(2), pages 823-847, May.
    10. Karolina Małagocka, 2024. "Navigating Digital Privacy and Surveillance: Post‐Covid Regulatory and Theoretical Insights," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 12.
    11. Olivier Armantier & Sebastian Doerr & Jon Frost & Andreas Fuster & Kelly Shue, 2024. "Nothing to hide? Gender and age differences in the willingness to share data," BIS Working Papers 1187, Bank for International Settlements.
    12. Lorien Sabatino & Geza Sapi, 2023. "Privacy regulation and online concentration during demand peaks: evidence from the E-commerce sector," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 50(2), pages 265-282, June.
    13. Guy Aridor & Yeon‐Koo Che & Tobias Salz, 2023. "The effect of privacy regulation on the data industry: empirical evidence from GDPR," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 54(4), pages 695-730, December.
    14. Kinshuk Jerath & Klaus M. Miller, 2024. "Consumers' Perceived Privacy Violations in Online Advertising," Papers 2403.03612, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.
    15. Sumit Agarwal & Pulak Ghosh & Tianyue Ruan & Yunqi Zhang, 2024. "Transient Customer Response to Data Breaches of Their Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(6), pages 4105-4114, June.
    16. Prado, Tiago S., 2022. "Safeguarding Competition in Digital Markets: A Comparative Analysis of Emerging Policy and Regulatory Regimes," 31st European Regional ITS Conference, Gothenburg 2022: Reining in Digital Platforms? Challenging monopolies, promoting competition and developing regulatory regimes 265666, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    17. Christopher Jon Sprigman & Stephan Tontrup, 2024. "Privacy decision‐making and the effects of privacy choice architecture: Experiments toward the design of behaviorally‐aware privacy regulation," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(3), pages 577-631, September.
    18. Jeanine Miklós-Thal & Avi Goldfarb & Avery Haviv & Catherine Tucker, 2024. "Frontiers: Digital Hermits," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(4), pages 697-708, July.

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