Sarah Carson

Problem: Recent work explores how to educate and encourage users to protect their online privacy. We tested the efficacy of short videos for educating users about targeted advertising on Facebook. We designed a video that utilized an emotional appeal to explain risks associated with targeted advertising (fear appeal), and which demonstrated how to use the associated ad privacy settings (digital literacy). We also designed a version of this video which additionally showed the viewer their personal Facebook ad profile, facilitating personal reflection on how they are currently being profiled (reflective learning). We conducted an experiment (n = 127) in which participants watched a randomly assigned video and measured the impact over the following 10 weeks. We found that these videos significantly increased user engagement with Facebook advertising preferences, especially for those who viewed the reflective learning content. However, those who only watched the fear appeal content were more likely to disengage with Facebook as a whole.