"I will never pay for this" Perception of fairness and factors affecting behaviour on 'pay-or-ok' models
Victor Morel, Farzaneh Karegar, Cristiana Santos

TL;DR
This study explores user perceptions of cookie paywalls, highlighting fairness concerns, factors influencing willingness to pay, and the importance of transparency and user control within the EU legal context.
Contribution
It provides new insights into user attitudes towards pay-or-ok models, emphasizing fairness, transparency, and legal considerations, which are underexplored in existing research.
Findings
Users view paywalls as profit-driven and unfair without transparency.
Trust, content exclusivity, and pricing influence willingness to pay.
Most users are reluctant to pay, raising concerns about economic exclusion.
Abstract
The rise of cookie paywalls ('pay-or-ok' models) has prompted growing debates around the right to privacy and data protection, monetisation, and the legitimacy of user consent. Despite their increasing use across sectors, limited research has explored how users perceive these models or what shapes their decisions to either consent to tracking or pay. To address this gap, we conducted four focus groups (n= 14) to examine users' perceptions of cookie paywalls, their judgments of fairness, and the conditions under which they might consider paying, alongside a legal analysis within the EU data protection legal framework. Participants primarily viewed cookie paywalls as profit-driven, with fairness perceptions varying depending on factors such as the presence of a third option beyond consent or payment, transparency of data practices, and the authenticity or exclusivity of the paid…
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Taxonomy
TopicsPrivacy, Security, and Data Protection · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing
