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# The Digital Privacy Paradox and Choice Architecture: Evidence from an Experiment in Fintech

By Susan Athey (Stanford), Christian Catalini (MIT Sloan), Alex Moehring, Catherine Tucker (MIT Sloan) · 2026 (first version February 2017)

Published: MIS Quarterly, 2026

## Abstract

A field experiment built into the rollout of a digital wallet to thousands of
MIT students — the MIT digital currency experiment — sheds light on consumer
behavior regarding commercial, public and government surveillance. Whereas
consumers say they care about privacy, they are willing to relinquish private
data quite easily in exchange for convenience, small incentives, or reassuring
but irrelevant information. Small costs introduced during the selection of
digital wallets by the random ordering of featured options have a tangible
effect on the technology ultimately adopted, often in sharp contrast with
individuals' stated preferences about privacy. Key safeguards such as "notice
and choice" are unlikely to be effective, as providing more information about
privacy trade-offs does not reduce the tendency of consumers to go against
their own stated privacy preferences.

![Figure from the paper: small incentives sharply reduce the share of students protecting their friends' privacy](https://blockchain.mit.edu/images/research/digital-privacy-paradox.png)

## Links

- [Download on SSRN](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2916489)
- [NBER Working Paper 23488](https://www.nber.org/papers/w23488)
- [Paper page on catalini.com](https://catalini.com/research/digital-privacy-paradox/)