The results generated within FreeDigital show that free digital goods and services do not impose higher non-monetary costs on consumers than paid ones. This means that paying money does not necessarily guarantee better privacy protection and lower contractual risks. As such, consumers should be cautious when deciding for paid products instead of free ones. It also highlights that policymakers may need to scrutinize paid digital goods and services as closely as the free ones.
At the same time, the data collected demonstrates that free digital goods and services are diverse – some might be truly beneficial for consumers, while others do indeed impose high non-monetary costs by displaying advertisement, engaging in extensive collection and processing of consumers data and providing no contractual protection. Calling such products and services ‘free’ is misleading and may backfire in the long term. The project provides evidence that people are indeed reluctant to accept even truly beneficial free offers because they don’t find them trustworthy.
Finally, the law distinguishes between collection of consumer data to personalize services that consumers agreed to be provided with and to personalize advertisement. In the latter case, businesses need to obtain consumer consent for data processing. The experiments conducted within FreeDigital show that people’s attitudes do not reflect this legal distinction – consumers are as unwilling to share their data when it is collected and processed in order to provide services contracted for as when it is processed to provide third-party advertisement. This holds regardless of the price of the product. Yet, in general, people are much more willing to share their data with providers of free than paid products.
The project was presented at 15 international and local conferences, workshops and seminars. To spread the results of the project and popularize empirical methods in law, the following events were organized: two workshops and a panel discussion, two summer schools and a seminar series. The Fellow participated in multiple soft skill courses and an intensive training within Female Science Talents Intensive Track organized by the Falling Walls foundation. Results of the project are described in a report and three working papers that will soon be submitted to peer-reviewed journals. Finally, the Fellow edited a special issue of a Technology and Regulation journal and served as a reviewer for two conferences and two journals.
