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Industry-wide Adoption May Be Hard Without Regulatory Push

Says the report on behavioral aspect of data privacy backed by omidyar network having completed a first-of-its-kind behavioural experiment in India and Kenya, which assessed whether end-users can be nudged to be more privacy-conscious and whether better privacy practices provide a business advantage.

Behavioural science specialists, the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC), Ashoka University and Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, with support from Omidyar Network India, an investment firm focussed on social impact, have completed a first-of-its-kind behavioural experiment in India and Kenya. They assessed whether end-users can be nudged to be more privacy-conscious, and whether better privacy practices provide a business advantage.

The experiments looked at the privacy paradox that exists among users – users want to safeguard their privacy, but don’t follow through in action. Busara and CSBC consider it essential to understand users’ behaviour in these circumstances in order to improve data privacy practices in the Global South.

The experiment had various nudges designed to influence users’ privacy related behaviours, such as  presenting the privacy policy in a more visual manner, making users stay on the policy page for a fixed period of time, and using star ratings to indicate the quality of the privacy practices by the business.   

Speaking about the initiative, Pooja Haldea, Senior Advisor at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, Ashoka University, said, “The experiments we conducted have yielded promising results in identifying practices that can help improve the consent process. Users are not always capable of making the right choices for themselves and businesses are not always incentivised to put privacy first. Meaningful change in the data privacy environment can be brought about by better regulation and integrating privacy features into the platform design itself.  Working with service providers and policymakers to further fine tune these nudges and testing them in the real market setting would help advance our work to improve the privacy environment in the country”

Shilpa Kumar, Partner at Omidyar Network India, said “One of ON India’s goals is to enable every Indian to feel empowered and safe when she is online, reap benefits from technology, and face minimal harm from its risks. Towards this goal, we support efforts that build an appreciation of the benefits and risks of the data and attention economy, as well as enable individuals to take steps to protect themselves from harms online. In line with evolving global regulations, the IntAct initiative suggests that the onus should be on the service provider to keep the individual safe from harms, rather than the other way around. This is in line with other areas of consumer interest like food safety and electronic appliances. It also demonstrates that privacy has a business case – consumers share more data if they trust the service provider will use it responsibly.” 

It involved over 10,000 respondents in India and Kenya. Characteristics of Indian respondents were as follows

●    38% of the participants were women

●    Average age of the participants was 28.5 years

●    Average participant had at least a Bachelor’s degree and a monthly income of INR 20,000

The intended audience for the IntAct results includes digital businesses and emerging start-ups, as well as regulators & policymakers, with the aim to improve service delivery and regulatory frameworks.



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