No consumer is an Island: Relational Disclosure as a Regulatory Strategy to advance Consumers Protection against Microtargeting

Nowadays, most of the business-to-consumer interaction is based on consumers’ profiling to elaborate and deliver personalized products and services. It has been observed that these practices can be welfare enhancing if properly regulated. At the same time, risks related to their abuses are present and significant, and it is no surprise that in recent times personalization came at the centre of the scholarly and regulatory debate. Within currently existing and forthcoming regulations, a common perspective seems to be found: given the capacity of microtargeting to potentially undermine consumers’ autonomy, the success of the regulatory intervention depends primarily on people being aware of the personality dimension being targeted. Yet, existing disclosures are based on an individualized-format, focusing on the sole relationship between the professional and its counterparty: this approach operates in contrast with sociological studies, that consider interaction and observation of peers as essential formants in decision-making. A consideration of this “relational dimension” of decision-making is missing both in consumer protection and in the debate on personalization. The article defends that consumers’ awareness and understanding of personalization and its consequences could be improved significantly if information were to be offered according to a relational format: accordingly, it reports the result of a study conducted in the streaming service market, showing that when information is presented in a relational format, people’s knowledge and awareness about profiling and microtargeting is significantly increased, and defending the potential of relational disclosure as a general paradigm for advancing consumer protection.