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Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Obfuscation of Online Third-Party Information Sharing

Author

Listed:
  • Ashkan Eshghi

    (Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada)

  • Ram D. Gopal

    (Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom)

  • Hooman Hidaji

    (Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada)

  • Raymond A. Patterson

    (Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada)

Abstract

The practice of sharing online user information with external third parties has become the focal point of privacy concerns for consumer advocacy groups and policy makers. We explore the decisions by websites regarding the obfuscation that they use to make it difficult for users to discover the extent of information sharing. Using a Bayesian model, we shed light on the websites’ incentive to obfuscate user information sharing. We find that as content sensitivity increases, a website reduces its level of obfuscation. Furthermore, more popular websites engage in higher levels of obfuscation than less popular ones. We provide an empirical analysis of obfuscation and user information sharing in News (low content sensitivity) and Health (high content sensitivity) websites and confirm key results from our analytical model. Our analysis illustrates that obfuscation of information sharing is a viable strategy that websites use to improve their profits.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashkan Eshghi & Ram D. Gopal & Hooman Hidaji & Raymond A. Patterson, 2023. "Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Obfuscation of Online Third-Party Information Sharing," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 35(2), pages 286-303, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orijoc:v:35:y:2023:i:2:p:286-303
    DOI: 10.1287/ijoc.2022.1266
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    References listed on IDEAS

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