Title: Empowered consumers as data providers in the user-centric personal information ecosystem

Authors: Walter Castelnovo

Addresses: Department of Human Sciences, Innovation and Territory, University of Insubria (Italy), Via Oriani, 6 – 22100 Como, Italy

Abstract: The worldwide adoption of new user-centric data protection legislation (as exemplified by the EU's GDPR) and the emergence of the new user-centric personal information ecosystem are going to radically change the power relationship between consumers and firms that collect and use personal information. In this new scenario, in which the consumers' control over personal information is strengthened, firms should revise the interaction strategies which they use with empowered and increasingly privacy-aware consumers in order to obtain (and maintain in time) said consumers' explicit consent to the processing of personal information. This conceptual study argues that a strategy which considers consumers as data providers, involves them as coproducers in the value-producing processes that utilise personal information, and empowers them through an iterative, dynamic and dialogic interplay, represents a positive and proactive interaction strategy that firms can implement in the emerging ecosystem.

Keywords: personal information; privacy; coproduction; DART framework; GDPR; General Data Protection Regulation; consumers' rights; empowered consumer.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTPM.2021.117781

International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, 2021 Vol.21 No.3, pp.253 - 268

Received: 22 Mar 2020
Accepted: 20 Aug 2020
Published online: 24 Sep 2021 *

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