The Dilemma of User Engagement in Privacy Notices: Effects of Interaction Modes and Habituation on User Attention

Privacy notices and consent forms are the means of conveying privacy policy information to users. In Europe, a valid consent needs to be confirmed by a clear affirmative action. Despite previous research, it is not yet clear whether user engagement with consent forms via different types of interactions for confirming consent may play a significant role in effectively drawing user attention to the content, even after repeated exposure. We investigate, in a laboratory study, how different types of interactions that engage users with consent forms differ in terms of their effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction. In addition, we examine if and how habituation affects user attention and satisfaction, and the time they spend on giving their consent. We conducted a controlled experiment with 80 participants in four different groups where people either were engaged actively with the policy content via Drag and Drop (DAD), Swipe, or Checkboxes, or were not actively engaged with the content (as the control condition) in a first-exposure phase and in a habituation phase. We measured user attention to consent forms along multiple dimensions, including direct, objective measurements and indirect, self-reported measures. Our results show that the different types of interactions may affect user attention to certain parts of policy information. In particular, the DAD action results in significantly more user attention to the data items compared to other groups. However, with repeated exposure to consent forms, the difference disappears. We conclude that user engagement with policy content needs to be designed with care, so that attention to substantial policy information is increased and not negatively affected.