Behavioural Sciences and the Regulation of Privacy on the Internet

TL;DR

This paper discusses how behavioral science insights can inform internet privacy regulation, especially regarding behavioral targeting, and suggests banning certain practices if they harm societal interests.

Contribution

It highlights the policy implications of behavioral sciences for privacy regulation and advocates for banning harmful behavioral targeting practices.

Findings

Enforcing data protection law may be insufficient for privacy protection.

Behavioral targeting involves tracking online behavior for targeted ads.

Policy measures like bans could better protect societal interests.

Abstract

This chapter examines the policy implications of behavioural sciences insights for the regulation of privacy on the Internet, by focusing in particular on behavioural targeting. This marketing technique involves tracking people's online behaviour to use the collected information to show people individually targeted advertisements. Enforcing data protection law may not be enough to protect privacy in this area. I argue that, if society is better off when certain behavioural targeting practices do not happen, policymakers should consider banning them.