Preferences for privacy and security: an experimental investigation

The article experimentally investigates individuals’ choice behavior between privacy and security. In a convenience sample of undergraduate and graduate students, we find that most individuals choose to sacrifice a moderate amount of privacy in exchange for a moderate increase in security. A nontrivial fraction of participants made more extreme choices, opting for either high security or high privacy positions. Identifiable factors influenced these choices. For example, while the high security individuals responded to losses they personally experienced in the experiment, high privacy subjects responded to losses experienced by others in the experiment.