Personal information value from the user perspective: an empirical study on the students of Ca’ Foscari

Abstract

The web offers the users a multitude of resources and services without charge and most of the income necessary to run those platforms derives from the same users’ time, activities and the use of their personal information. While the success of the companies behind those free online services relies on the correct evaluation of their user value, the typical user seems to underestimate his/her bargaining power. This research, based on the data gathered from over a thousand of students of the Ca’ Foscari University, aims at gauging the estimation of the personal information online with two independent variables and at finding the relations between the values given and their online experience background.