The Effect of Privacy Regulation on the Data Industry: Empirical Evidence from GDPR

Utilizing a novel dataset from an online travel intermediary, we study the effects of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The opt-in requirement of GDPR resulted in 12.5% drop in the intermediary-observed consumers, but the remaining consumers are track- able for a longer period of time. Our findings imply that privacy conscious consumers exert privacy externalities on opt-in consumers, making them more predictable. Consistent with this finding, the average value of the remaining consumers to advertisers has increased, offsetting some of the losses from consumer opt-outs.