Does Privacy Regulation Harm Content Providers? A Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of the GDPR
Does Privacy Regulation Harm Content Providers? A Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of the GDPR
复制标题
隐私监管是否会损害内容提供商？
DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.4239013
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发表时间：
2022
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
A. Acquisti
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
V. Lefrere;L. Warberg;C. Cheyre;V. Marotta;A. Acquisti
虽然欧洲通用数据保护条例 (GDPR) 在信息系统文献中受到了极大关注，但尚未对其对网站向访问者提供高质量内容的能力产生不利影响的担忧进行彻底调查。我们构建了新闻和媒体网站的纵向数据集，以研究在线内容提供商如何随着时间的推移调整其对 GDPR 的响应，以及该法规对在线跟踪的限制是否影响下游结果，例如这些网站向访问者提供的内容数量以及访问者对此类内容的参与。我们发现了美国和欧盟网站对 GDPR 反应的有力证据，包括第三方 cookie 数量和访客跟踪强度的初步减少。然而，美国和欧盟网站之间的反应不同，在该法规颁布几个月后，随着欧盟网站之间的跟踪反弹，最初的跟踪减少被逆转。我们使用双重差异、LATE 和前瞻匹配模型来评估监管的下游影响，捕捉生态系统影响和网站层面的影响。我们发现，在观察期接近结束时，欧盟网站的每位访问者平均页面浏览量相对于美国网站略有下降，但该法规对欧盟网站新内容的提供、社交媒体对新内容的参与度以及短期和长期排名没有产生统计上的显着影响。我们还没有发现任何证据表明欧盟和美国内容提供商的生存率存在差异，也没有证据表明欧盟网站相对于美国网站的货币化策略变化率更高。虽然行业预测预示着 GDPR 会给内容提供商带来可怕的后果，但我们发现对 GDPR 反应更强烈的网站是那些不太可能受到这种反应影响的网站；相比之下，随着时间的推移，很大程度上依赖欧盟访问者的网站找到了避免受到该法规负面影响的方法。矿业电信学院、商学院。电子邮件：vincent.lefrere@imt-bs.eu 卡内基梅隆大学工程与公共政策。电子邮件：warberg@cmu.edu 康奈尔鲍尔斯 CIS，康奈尔大学。电子邮件：ccheyre@infosci.cornell.edu 明尼苏达大学双城分校卡尔森管理学院。电子邮件：vmarotta@umn.edu 卡内基梅隆大学亨氏学院。电子邮件：acquisti@cmu.edu。
While the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has received significant attention in the information systems literature, concerns that it would adversely affect websites’ ability to provide quality content to their visitors have not been thoroughly investigated. We construct a longitudinal data-set of news and media websites to study how online content providers adapted their responses to the GDPR over time, and whether restrictions on online tracking enforced by the regulation affected downstream outcomes such as the quantity of content those websites offer to their visitors and visitors’ engagement with such content. We find robust evidence of websites’ reactions to the GDPR in both the US and the EU, including an initial reduction in the number of third-party cookies and intensity of visitor tracking. However, reactions differ between US and EU websites, and several months after the enactment of the regulation the initial reduction in tracking is reversed, as tracking among EU websites bounces back. We use difference-in-differences, LATE, and look-ahead matching models to assess downstream effects of the regulation, capturing both ecosystem effects and website-level effects. We find a small reduction in average page views per visitor on EU websites relative to US websites near the end of the period of observation, but no statistically significant impact of the regulation on EU websites’ provision of new content, social media engagement with new content, and ranking in both the short-term and the long-term. We also find no evidence of differences in survival rates across EU and US content providers, and no evidence that monetization strategies change at a higher rate for EU websites relative to US websites. While industry predictions forebode dire consequences arising from the GDPR for content providers, we find that websites that responded more strongly to the GDPR were those less likely to be affected by such a response; in contrast, websites that relied in great part on EU visitors found, over time, ways to avoid being negatively affected by the regulation. Institut Mines Telecom, Business School. Email: vincent.lefrere@imt-bs.eu Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University. Email: warberg@cmu.edu Cornell Bowers CIS, Cornell University. Email: ccheyre@infosci.cornell.edu University of Minnesota Twin Cities Carlson School of Management. Email:vmarotta@umn.edu Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University. Email:acquisti@cmu.edu.