Online Behavioral Advertising : A Study of Privacy Concerns and Coping Behavior for Students in Sweden

Sammanfattning: During recent years, the global digital transformation has led to changes in the advertising industry, where advertisers use new strategies to reach customers to advertise their products and services. Online behavioral advertising emerged as a new advertising process, which allowed companies to collect and use online behavior to create tailored personalized advertisements. Online behavioral advertising has led to privacy concerns. The purpose of this study is to examine the viewpoint on online behavioral advertising for students in Sweden. By reviewing previous literature on the subject of online behavioral advertising this study constructed statements that examined the attitude of students in Sweden on privacy concerns, privacy violations, advertising avoidance as well as advertising acceptance. This study examined this by sending out an online questionnaire to a sample of students attending LTU (Luleå University of Technology). By analyzing the empirical findings this study found that students are somewhat indifferent about statements on online behavioral advertising. They are somewhat concerned about their privacy but not as intensely as previous research would suggest. Students at LTU are also indifferent about avoiding these types of advertisements. Concerning advertising acceptance, students at LTU are somewhat indifferent and tilted towards disagreement regardless of how the argument is framed for allowing behavioral tracking.