We develop a social custom model where a population of social media users decide whether to remain online and accept the platform’s data-gathering policy or abandon the social media and litigate for privacy violations. By allowing the users’ concerns for informational security to co-evolve with the number of privacy-related trials, we find that the system may converge to multiple equilibria. When users put relative emphasis on the relational benefits of online interactions, privacy-related trials remain contained and the provider imposes no limitations to its data-gathering activities. Conversely, when users put relative emphasis on the privacy costs of web-mediated interactions, privacy-related trials become endemic and platforms modulate their data-gathering activities by mediating between profitability and the legal implications of their choice. We use these results to comment the recent shift in the users’ orientation towards online platforms and caution against the inability of institutions to keep up with the process of technological change.

我们开发了一种社交自定义模型，其中，大量的社交媒体用户决定是保持在线状态并接受平台的数据收集策略，还是放弃社交媒体并针对侵犯隐私的行为提起诉讼。通过使用户对信息安全的关注与与隐私相关的试验的数量共同发展，我们发现该系统可以收敛于多个平衡点。当用户相对强调在线互动的关系利益时，与隐私相关的试验仍然受到限制，提供商对其数据收集活动没有任何限制。相反，当用户相对强调网络介导的交互的隐私成本时，与隐私相关的试验就成了地方性的，平台通过在获利能力和选择的法律含义之间进行调解来调节其数据收集活动。