Working Paper: NBER ID: w31692
Authors: Bo Bian; Michaela Pagel; Huan Tang
Abstract: In today’s digital economy, firms near constantly collect, analyze, and profit from consumers’ personal information, which might expose consumers to financial fraud. We examine the effects of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy, which significantly curtailed data collection and sharing on the iOS platform. Using zip code level variation in iOS user shares, we show that ATT substantially reduced fraud complaints. The effects are concentrated in complaints that have more relevant narratives and in complaints about companies engaging in intensive consumer surveillance and lacking data safeguards. Our evidence quantifies one of the main harms of lax privacy standards.
Keywords: consumer surveillance; financial fraud; data privacy; App Tracking Transparency
JEL Codes: G5
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| ATT policy (L96) | financial fraud complaints (G28) |
| 10% increase in iOS users in a zip code (R23) | financial fraud complaints (G28) |
| 82% opt-out rate due to ATT policy (L96) | financial fraud complaints (G28) |
| ATT policy (L96) | complaints related to lax data security (K24) |
| ATT policy (L96) | complaints in specific product categories (L68) |
| ATT policy (L96) | demographic groups vulnerable to fraud (J14) |