סמינר בניהול טכנולוגיה ומערכות מידע

Speaker: Peter Zubcsek, Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University.
Title: "Balancing Consumer Privacy with Marketing Insights in Mobile Location Data"

Abstract: Mobile location data offer granular detail into consumers’ mobility patterns. The data reveal where consumers spend their time, which may be indicative of consumer preferences and ultimately behavior. The detailed nature of the data, however, can reveal sensitive information about consumers based on the places that they visit such as healthcare facilities, social connections or educational institutions. At the same time, such data offer an opportunity for marketers to leverage detailed location data for real-time and contextually relevant marketing. Can the desires of both marketers seeking actionable insights and individuals preferring privacy be accommodated? Using device-level data from a location data provider, we examine the extent to which predictive performance is affected by grouping individuals into homogeneous clusters that afford increased privacy. In our empirical context, we find that some level of aggregation results in higher predictive accuracy. Our results also reveal that reliance on the locations of commercial activity yields results that are at least as good as home locations. Taken together, our findings offer guidance to data providers who must balance service to their clients with consumers’ expectations of privacy, as well as providing regulators with insight into the data granularity that marketers require for their operations.