Boosting Transparency with Communications in Support of Privacy Notices: The Role of Content and Format

Privacy notices, required by the GDPR, are often long and complex, creating information asymmetry between firms and users and reducing transparency. Based on Signalling Theory, authors develop a theoretical model that investigates how the content and format of the communication in support of the privacy notices affect perceived transparency and its consequences in terms of behavioral answers. A between-subjects experimental design has been run. Results show that providing more comprehensive communications increases the consumer perception of firms' transparency and the intention to use the product. Moreover, infographic formats benefit the perception of transparency more than text but only in contexts of limited information.