Personal data and personalisation in media: experts’ perceptions of value, benefits, and risks
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-07-2022-0076 |
| Published date | 10 April 2023 |
| Date | 10 April 2023 |
| Pages | 305-324 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy |
| Author | Natasja Van Buggenhout,Wendy Van den Broeck,Ine Van Zeeland,Jo Pierson |
Personal data and personalisation in
media: experts’perceptions of value,
benefits, and risks
Natasja Van Buggenhout, Wendy Van den Broeck, Ine Van Zeeland and Jo Pierson
Abstract
Purpose –Media users daily exchangepersonal data for ‘‘free’’ personalised media.Is this a fair trade,
or user ‘‘exploitation’’?Do personalisationbenefits outweigh privacy risks?
Design/methodology/approach –This study surveyed experts in three consecutive online rounds
(e-Delphi). The authors explored personal data processing value for media, personalisation relevance,
benefits and risks for users. The authors scrutinised the value-exchange between media and usersand
determined whether media communicate transparently, or use ‘‘darkpatterns’’ to obtain more personal
data.
Findings –Communication to users must be clear, correct and concise (prevent user deception).
Experts disagree on ‘‘payment’’with personal data for ‘‘free’’ personalised media. This study discerned
obstacles and solutions to substantially balance the interests of mediaand users (fair value exchange).
Personal data processingmust be transparent, profitableto media and users. Media can agree ‘‘sector-
wide’’ on personalisation transparency. Fair, secure and transparent information disclosure to media is
possiblethrough shared responsibility and effort.
Originality/value –This study’s innovative contribution is threefold: Firstly, focus on professional
stakeholders’ opinion in the value network. Secondly, recommendations to clearly communicate
personalisedmedia value, benefits and risks to users. This allows media to createcodes of conduct that
increase user trust.Thirdly, expanding literature explaining how mediarealise personal data value, deal
with stakeholder interests and position themselves in the data processing debate. This research
improves understanding of personal data value, processing benefits and potential risks in a regional
contextand European regulatory framework.
Keywords Media, Personal data, Personalisation, Value exchange, Transparency, e-Delphi
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Media users daily exchange personal data (age, gender and preferences) for “free”
personalised media content or advertising tailored to user interests. Mass media targeted a
homogeneous “user”, new media personalise services based on user profiling and
behavioural data. Is this a fair trade, or user “exploitation”? Do personalisation benefits like
improved service quality, user experience (UX) and relevance outweigh privacy risks like
data breaches or identity theft? Media users’ answers to these questions may differ from
media organisations’ statements. Can media representatives empathise with users, and
vice versa? Previous research indicated users are unaware of personal data processing
value for media (Malgieri and Custers, 2018). Information disclosure consequences remain
unclear to media users (Robinson, 2017). Not sharing your data can decrease service
quality, and block media content access (Van Zeeland et al., 2019). Data disclosure can
lead to behavioural manipulation like “micro-targeting”: political advertisements on social
media to influence voting preferences (Issenberg, 2012;Ribeiro et al.,2019). Hiding
Natasja Van Buggenhout,
Wendy Van den Broeck,
Ine Van Zeeland and
Jo Pierson are all based at
imec-SMIT, Vrije
Universiteit Brussel,
Brussel, Belgium.
Received 5 July 2022
Revised 19 January 2023
3 March 2023
Accepted 3 March 2023
Funding: Masked for blinded
review.
DOI 10.1108/DPRG-07-2022-0076 VOL. 25 NO. 3 2023, pp. 305-324, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jPAGE 305
content behind a “cookie wall” without offering alternatives violates European data
protection regulations (EDPB, 2020), but remains common practice. Many questions are
linked to personalisation, media do not communicate convincingly or transparent (Adjerid
et al.,2013
;Van Zeeland et al.,2019). Users are unaware they “pay” with data for
personalised media (Kuneva, 2009). As plenty research describes the users’ perspective,
we research media organisations’ perspective on personal data processing for
personalisation.
A roundtable discussion on personal data protection in the Belgian media sector initiated
our research (masked for blinded review). We explored personal data processing value for
media in Flanders, Belgium [1]. In this study, we surveyed experts in three consecutive
rounds, eliciting opinions and attitudes. We recruited media professionals, academics,
representatives from regulators, advisory boards and knowledge centres. The research
questions were:
RQ1. What is personaldata processing value for media?
RQ2. How do experts regard“fairness” of user data disclosure for personalisation(value-
exchange)?
RQ3. How can media clearly communicateabout personalisation towards users?
We presented the first Delphi-roundfindings in [masked for blinded review]. The exploration
phase indicated media professionals struggled to identify with users’ perspective, focusing
mainly on benefits for media. Personalisation was linked to functional value (e.g. ease of
use, time-savings). They identified improved service quality and experience as user
benefits. The term “relevance” was used but its meaning remained vague. Media
professionals collected more data thannecessary to develop personalised media (e.g. age
and gender data). The linkbetween collected data and product was unclear.
This article reports the second and third Delphi-round findings. We studied perceived
necessity of data processing for media and personalisation relevance for users. The
objective was to reach consensus on recommendations for media to communicate
personalised media value clearly and convincingly to users, and explain benefits and
potential risks in an understandable way (personalisation transparency). We developed
practical guidelines for media to createcodes of conduct that increase users’ trust.
2. Personal data, personalised media and privacy
Our world and daily life increasingly digitalise; technology and data are significant in that
development (DOMO, 2020a;Stalder, 2018;van Dijck, 2014). Ad clicks, social media likes/
shares/reactions, online purchases/transactions, streaming, etc. generate data (DOMO,
2020a;van Dijck, 2014). The amountof (personal) data grows each year (Desjardins, 2019;
DOMO, 2020b). The same applies in the media industry, personal data is currency for
access to media services. In the next section, we discuss key concepts starting with data
processing value for media. We focus on specific aspects and core issues of privacy and
personalisation in media comparedto other industries.
2.1 Personal data processing value for media organisations
To explore data processing value for media organisations, we grounded the conceptual
framework on the following notions. Personal data is any personal identifiable information
like age, gender, interests, browsing history and viewing/reading behaviour, individually
provided by media users (“data subjects” e.g. TV viewers, newspaper readers, internet
users) and observed and inferred/analysed by media organisations (General Data
Protection Regulation [GDPR] art. 4.1; Lindsta
¨dt, 2010;Picone, 2017;WEF, 2014). We refer
to data collection, storage, use anddisclosure as “processing” (GDPR art. 4.2). In our case,
commercial and public service media (broadcasters, publishers, telecommunication/
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