Abstract:

Internet-of-things technologies enable service providers such as insurance companies to collect vast amounts of privacy-sensitive data on car drivers. This paper studies whether and how privacy concerns of car owners can be compensated by offering monetary benefits. The authors study the case of usage based car insurance services for which the insurance fee is adapted to measured mileage and driving behaviour. The study is a first to compare different forms of privacy in the acceptance of connected car services. Hereby, the authors contribute to more fine-grained understanding of privacy concerns in the acceptance of digital services, which will become more important in the upcoming Internet-of things era. In this study, the authors focus on usage based insurance services for which the insurance fee is based on actual car-use. This paper takes a utilitarian view on privacy and assumes privacy concerns can be compensated financially. The study contributes to theories on privacy by distinguishing multiple dimensions of privacy rather than the typically one-dimensional operationalization in literature. The study shows that the buy-off value for privacy varies depending on the dimension of privacy concerned.