THE OPT-IN AND OPT-OUT DEBATE: IS IT REALLY NECESSARY?

In this extended abstract we consider the provision of opt-in and opt-out choices on the Internet. Specifically, we study two features of opt-in and opt-out choices – the phrasing of the choice statement and the initial default status. Through a series of experiments we found that consumer choices of whether to receive future newsletters and promotions are affected by how the choice statements are presented. This implies that technology could play a more important role in privacy management and personalization. AUTHOR KEYWORDS Information privacy, defaults, frames, privacy concern, opt-in, opt-out. ACM CLASSIFICATION KEYWORDS H.5.2 User Interfaces: Interaction styles (e.g., commands, menus