Conceptualizing Personal Data Pricing Through Construal Level Theory

Individuals' increasing generation of digital data and evolving data ownership rights reinforce monetization opportunities in personal data markets. Understanding how personal data valuation and pricing is construed becomes essential. So far, psychological factors such as data sensitivity or proximity are under-researched. This study examines how construal level theory contributes to construing and explaining individual data value through an exploratory quantitative survey (n = 633). The results show that different construal levels influence data pricing, psychological ownership and willingness-to-disclose.