Optimizing privacy policy videos to mitigate the privacy policy paradox

Abstract

This research takes a design science approach to improving privacy policies through the design and use of mediated content, such as video. Research has emerged to indicate that privacy policies communicated through video (separate from—and in addition to—traditional textual privacy policy documents) are more effective at engendering trust, decreasing perceived risk, and encouraging information disclosure than textual privacy policies, which are seldom read or understood. We extend this research by examining design factors such as narrator gender, animation style, music tone, and color scheme. We implemented a field experiment and survey to determine how variations in these design elements affect consumers’ perceived risk, perceived benefits, and disclosure decisions. The results indicate that the most effective privacy policy videos use female narrators with vibrant color palettes and light musical tones. The animation style (animated imagery versus animated text) has no effect on consumers’ perceived risk/benefits or disclosure decisions.