The Data-Dollars Tradeoff: Privacy Harms vs. Economic Risk in Personalized AI Adoption

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Erlei, Alexander, Abbas, Tahir, Bizer, Kilian, Gadiraju, Ujwal
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Erlei, Alexander
Abbas, Tahir
Bizer, Kilian
Gadiraju, Ujwal
author_facet Erlei, Alexander
Abbas, Tahir
Bizer, Kilian
Gadiraju, Ujwal
contents Privacy concerns significantly impact AI adoption, yet little is known about how information environments shape user responses to data leak threats. We conducted a 2 x 3 between-subjects experiment (N=610) examining how risk versus ambiguity about privacy leaks affects the adoption of AI personalization. Participants chose between standard and AI-personalized product baskets, with personalization requiring data sharing that could leak to pricing algorithms. Under risk (30% leak probability), we found no difference in AI adoption between privacy-threatening and neutral conditions (ca. 50% adoption). Under ambiguity (10-50% range), privacy threats significantly reduced adoption compared to neutral conditions. This effect holds for sensitive demographic data as well as anonymized preference data. Users systematically over-bid for privacy disclosure labels, suggesting strong demand for transparency institutions. Notably, privacy leak threats did not affect subsequent bargaining behavior with algorithms. Our findings indicate that ambiguity over data leaks, rather than only privacy preferences per se, drives avoidance behavior among users towards personalized AI.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_08848
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Data-Dollars Tradeoff: Privacy Harms vs. Economic Risk in Personalized AI Adoption
Erlei, Alexander
Abbas, Tahir
Bizer, Kilian
Gadiraju, Ujwal
Human-Computer Interaction
General Economics
Economics
Privacy concerns significantly impact AI adoption, yet little is known about how information environments shape user responses to data leak threats. We conducted a 2 x 3 between-subjects experiment (N=610) examining how risk versus ambiguity about privacy leaks affects the adoption of AI personalization. Participants chose between standard and AI-personalized product baskets, with personalization requiring data sharing that could leak to pricing algorithms. Under risk (30% leak probability), we found no difference in AI adoption between privacy-threatening and neutral conditions (ca. 50% adoption). Under ambiguity (10-50% range), privacy threats significantly reduced adoption compared to neutral conditions. This effect holds for sensitive demographic data as well as anonymized preference data. Users systematically over-bid for privacy disclosure labels, suggesting strong demand for transparency institutions. Notably, privacy leak threats did not affect subsequent bargaining behavior with algorithms. Our findings indicate that ambiguity over data leaks, rather than only privacy preferences per se, drives avoidance behavior among users towards personalized AI.
title The Data-Dollars Tradeoff: Privacy Harms vs. Economic Risk in Personalized AI Adoption
topic Human-Computer Interaction
General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.08848