Social Networks, Personalized Advertising, and Privacy Controls
Tucker investigates how internet users' perceptions of control over personal information affect how likely they are to click on advertising on a social networking site. The analysis uses a randomised field experiment on personalising ad text with user-posted personal information compared with generic text. Midway through the test the site gave users more control over their personal information, though advertisers' use of data did not change. Before the change, personalised ads did not perform especially well. After it, users were nearly twice as likely to click on personalised ads.
Tucker investigates how internet users' perceptions of control over personal information affect how likely they are to click on advertising on a social networking site. The analysis uses a randomised field experiment on personalising ad text with user-posted personal information compared with generic text. Midway through the test the site gave users more control over their personal information, though advertisers' use of data did not change. Before the change, personalised ads did not perform especially well. After it, users were nearly twice as likely to click on personalised ads.
Written from the abstract as shown on the OpenAlex record, read 2026-11-04.
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Tucker, C. E. (2014). Social Networks, Personalized Advertising, and Privacy Controls. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(5), 546-562. doi:10.1509/jmr.10.0355