Shoppers are OK with personalization on the surface, but not if it gets too personal. A January 2018 survey of internet users in the US and Western Europe by RSA and YouGov found that 78% said they try to limit the amount of personal data they share online and with companies. Only 26% said they would be willing to share personal data in exchange for an improved customer experience.
An interesting finding in the ARF study was that money wasn't much of an incentive. Data that consumers weren't willing to share couldn't be bought at any cost, and the data they were willing to share came cheap. A majority said $1 to $10 would be adequate, and one-third said they didn't need to be compensated at all.
This finding is similar to a May 2018 Syzygy survey, in which around half of US internet users said they wouldn't sell their data for any price. The going rate among those who would sell their data was $150. That was much higher than the ARF study, but the Syzygy survey came with qualifiers like being their "favorite brand" and was restricted to data that companies like Facebook and Google already have and wouldn't be shared.
Maybe the most telling example of data privacy's importance was illustrated in an October 2017 survey by eMiles. When US internet users were asked about the factors that influenced where they shop digitally, free shipping was the obvious first choice, cited by 63% of respondents. But a retailer's security and privacy policies came in a close second, at 60%.