Cyber - Project - Consumer Privacy

Consumer Privacy

Recent advances in information technology have allowed firms to gather detailed data about consumers’ preferences and the structure of their social interactions. Along with the growingly adopted targeting technologies, the wealth of available information benefits firms and holds a lot of promise for individuals. On the other hand, challenges arise with regards to the sensitive nature of the information entities such as firms and government agencies may collect about individuals. In such a context data holders may take advantage of the individuals’ inability to fully comprehend and anticipate the potential uses of their private information with detrimental effects for aggregate social welfare. These challenges are only amplified by the fact that consumer information is a valuable business asset and it is typically infeasible for an individual to retain full control of its informational value. Moreover, individuals interact with one another forming social relationships and preserving one’s privacy in the context of a connected society which presents another set of interesting questions especially when individuals have different views on what may constitute sensitive information. This proposal aims to develop a comprehensive way to think about extracting the significant societal and commercial value of data about individuals while taking their privacy considerations into account.

Publications:

Bimpikis, K., Ozdaglar, A., & Yildiz, E. (2016)."Competitive Targeted Advertising over Networks." Operations Research. February 2016, Vol. 64, Issue 3, Pages 705-720. https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/competitive-targeted-advertising-over-networks
Bimpikis, K., Crapis, D., & Tahbaz-Salehi, A. (2016). "Selling Information in Oligopolies." Working paper for Management Science. http://stanford.edu/~kostasb/publications/selling_information.pdf

Researchers

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/kostas-bimpikis

Kostas Bimpikis

Associate Professor of Operations, Information & Technology

Kostas Bimpikis is an Associate Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Prior to joining Stanford, he spent a year as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Microsoft Research New England Lab. Professor Bimpikis has received a PhD in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010, an MS in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego and a BS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece.

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/yonatan-gur

Yonatan Gur

Assistant Professor of Operations, Information & Technology

Yonatan Gur is an Assistant Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Prior to joining Stanford in 2014 he received his PhD in Decision, Risk, and Operations from Columbia Business School. He also holds a B.Sc. degree from the School of Physics and Astronomy and an M.Sc. from the School of Mathematical Sciences, Tel Aviv University.