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Christian Peukert, Associate Professor, University of Lausanne.
Title: Off-platform tracking and data externalities
Abstract: Off-platform tracking enables platforms to observe web browsing behavior of any internet user, not only their own users. Often, users additionally disclose personal characteristics, such as age and gender, to platforms. Relating behavioral data to those characteristics, platforms can build models of consumer profiles. In this context, data externalities arise when unobserved characteristics of non-users can be inferred from data of users. Focusing on Facebook, we quantify the ability to track individuals outside its own platform, irrespective of whether they are users of Facebook. We find that Facebook is able to track about 40% of the browsing time of both its users and non-users, including on privacy-sensitive domains and across user demographics. We show that the collected browsing data can produce accurate predictions of personal information that is valuable for advertisers. We demonstrate that the prediction accuracy derived from the browsing information of non-Facebook users is similar to the predictive accuracy derived from Facebook users - for a model that is trained using only data of Facebook users. We interpret this as evidence of significant data externalities.
Bio: Christian Peukert is Associate Professor for Digitization, Innovation and Intellectual Property at the University of Lausanne, Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC), Switzerland. He studies how digital technologies affect firms, consumers and markets with a focus on intellectual property and the economics of data and artificial intelligence. His work is forthcoming or has been published in outlets such as Management Science, Information Systems Research, Marketing Science, and Strategic Management Journal. Before his academic career, Christian co-founded a record label that specializes in rap music