The privacy paradox: a challenge to decision theory?

In the present research we propose a methodology—to our knowledge, the first attempt in this sense—that considers information asymmetries when the degree of privacy concerning individuals is detected. Such filtering (“privacy concerns” degree as a function of “data awareness” level) allows to highlight the individuals’ desired level of privacy—and related privacy concerns—analyzing whether individuals’ data disclosure decisions are taken consciously or as the result of a “blind” (unaware) choice, considering data gathering practices—related level of consciousness. Previous works may have been biased due to the lack of such observation. Our measurement has been conducted taking into account the individuals’ awareness with respect to data collection techniques performed by mobile applications in Italy. As a matter of fact, if individuals’ privacy preferences among consumers are not distributed in a uniform way, this results in socially regressive outcomes.