Data Use

The project 'Data use, online consumer needs, business strategies and regulatory response' aims to explore and examine the factors that impact upon the efficacy of information disclosure duties pertaining to customer data use in online business.

Contact    Simone van der Hof

With the advent of (big) data technologies, businesses can collect and use ever bigger quantities of online information from their customers without their actual knowledge or meaningful consent. In turn, customers know preciously little of how their data and the superior information position it produces can be used by businesses to customers’ advantage and disadvantage. This information asymmetry is problematic both from a social and a legal viewpoint. In response, legislatures and regulators have set forth numerous rules and guidelines on (online) information disclosure duties to combat (unlawfully) hiding , framing, distorting or skewing material information. As far as these rules and guidelines is concerned, little is known about their efficacy. So, in terms of ‘what works, how, why and when’ in the regulation of (online) information disclosure, we are confronted with a hiatus in knowledge.