Study design

Big data is a dominant trend in the IT and communications business and has far-reaching consequences for the economy and society as a whole. Modern software and high data transfer capacities make it possible to collect, analyse and evaluate at high speed, large unstructured data volumes from a variety of sources, and in different formats. Up to now, the general public only vaguely understands how it should deal with the issue.

The objective of the study was to gauge the discrepancy between the Germans’ declared wish for strict data protection and the careless way they often deal with personal data.It was intended to demonstrate which factors motivate people to make their personal data available for analyses. To this end, the survey was combined with behavioural economic experiments. This led to empirically valid conclusions about the real interests and requirements of citizens with regard to big data and data protection.

For this study, the Handelsblatt Research Institute collaborated with the opinion research institute Forsa and the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) of the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.