The Sasin Research Seminar series starts the new year with a fascinating talk about privacy by Prof. Dr. habil. Doreén Pick – Effects of smart speakers’ privacy concerns on customer loyalty. The presentation began by establishing relevance. Examples of various data breaches worldwide were given, followed by statistics on some of the largest ever data breaches, including how many millions of records have been stolen. Then the talk discussed how privacy is defined and why it matters. Privacy can vary between cultures and time periods. For example, diaries have always been private, but in the modern world, people are more likely to share things like personal details, data, and family photos on the internet for all to see. Next, Dr. Pick looked at the average cost of data breaches worldwide for different industry sectors. She showed the top fines resulting from breaking General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) infractions. This was followed by a look at how companies like Apple stress how much data can be gathered about users from phones and how this can be avoided. How privacy is defined has changed over the decades was examined, and the question of why personal data collection might be a topic was discussed. Some of these reasons may include people being risk-averse, a perception of large amounts of data being collected, and an experience of data breaches or misuse of data. Dr. Pick then examined the differences in privacy concerns and what people consider sensitive private data based on her research. Surveys found the most significant concerns related to personal finance, such as data for digital payments, monthly income, and information about credit cards and bank accounts. She pointed out that research has not yet been done into sensitivity and privacy concerns. The idea that certain characteristics might influence privacy concerns led to a look at the antecedents. These include the perceived audience, internet experience, culture, age, gender, income, and regulations. A survey in Thailand looked at what those concerned about privacy issues did to counteract data collection. The main actions taken were cookie deletion, ad-blocking tools, and tracking screen time. Other studies on the consequences of privacy concerns were then examined, and gaps in the literature were identified, such as how the effects differ for different types of privacy concerns. Dr. Pick then discussed her studies on privacy concerns and marketing outcomes. The first of these studies looked at carsharing and loyalty. This found several different points of interest, such as younger generations being less concerned about data privacy if there are economic benefits. The second study examined smart speakers, purchase intent, and loyalty. First, Dr. Pick looked at what households generally used smart speakers for and where they were commonly used. She then discussed some of her research findings and explored the differences between first purchases and repurchase intentions. Surprisingly, the initial results point to the majority of those questioned saying they were unlikely to repurchase smart speakers due to privacy concerns. This led to questioning why people purchased smart speakers in the first place, and a couple of surveys were discussed. It was proposed that if the speakers were purchased for entertainment purposes, there would be fewer concerns about privacy. Other factors were also examined, such as age and the primary concern that the devices collected too much data. Dr. Pick then summarized her findings. She found most consumers had privacy concerns but, for a variety of reasons, still shared a lot of information. Privacy concerns don’t seem to have much effect on purchasing behavior but may impact loyalty. She stressed the importance of differentiating the measures of privacy concerns and applying different means in marketing practice. The talk concluded with a look at future research areas. This was followed by a Q&A session that examined why people are more concerned about data shared while purchasing online than they are about sharing on social media. Another questioned whether purchasing behavior being unaffected by privacy concerns was down to a lack of alternatives.