Consumer Legitimization of Government Data Seizure in Turkey

With the increasing amount of consumer data, concerns over the seizure of data are a significant issue in contemporary digital society. While existing marketing literature has predominantly focused on firm–consumer interactions, it has paid scant attention to how consumers perceive government collection, access, and use of their data. Using the case of the worldwide WhatsApp data policy crisis, we theorize why and how consumers legitimize government data seizure. Drawing on netnographic data from Turkish consumers on three digital platforms, we identify three key themes: embracing the inevitable, safeguarding national interests, and politicizing privacy risks. Our research extends existing literature by incorporating consideration of the government, a key market actor, and by uncovering the interplay between political ideology, market politics, and data privacy. We also contribute by revealing consumers’ multilevel consumer privacy benefit-risk assessment and the role of political logic in this assessment.