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How Does Disabling Cookie Tracking Impact Online News Consumption?

Author

Listed:
  • Yufei Shen

    (Nova School of Business and Economics, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2775-405 Carcavelos, Portugal)

  • Klaus M. Miller

    (HEC Paris, 78351 Jouy-en-Josas, France)

  • Xitong Li

    (HEC Paris, 78351 Jouy-en-Josas, France)

Abstract

This paper examines the positive impact of disabling cookie tracking on news consumption. Using an individual-week level panel data from a European news website, we find that disabling cookie tracking increases the number of articles read by 54.3% and the number of news categories consumed by 39.7%. These effects remain robust across various models and persist for over four months. During our sample period, the site introduced personalized news recommendations, allowing us to isolate the impact of enhanced privacy control from content personalization. Our findings suggest that the effects of disabling tracking are even more pronounced when content personalization is absent, indicating that perceived privacy control drives users’ increased news consumption. Additionally, we show that users who disable tracking gain less from personalized recommendations. This study provides initial empirical evidence of the positive effects of disabling data tracking in the digital media ecosystem.

Suggested Citation

  • Yufei Shen & Klaus M. Miller & Xitong Li, 2024. "How Does Disabling Cookie Tracking Impact Online News Consumption?," Working Papers 24-08, NET Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:net:wpaper:2408
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cookie tracking; news consumption; consumer privacy; online media;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising

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