Customer Control Over Personal Data Scale

What it measures

Measures a customer's perception of the extent to which they can manage a firm's use of their personal data. Adapted from Mothersbaugh et al. (2012). Alongside transparency, control is proposed — drawing on gossip theory — as a key suppressor of the negative emotional and cognitive consequences of data vulnerability.

Response format

7-point Likert (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree)

Scale items

• I believe I have control over what happens to my personal information.
• It is up to me how much the company uses my information.
• I have a say in how my information is used by the company.
• I have a say in whether my personal information is shared with others.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Adapted from Mothersbaugh, Foxx, Beatty, and Wang (2012). In Study 2 (event study), customer control was operationalised by coding the number of opt-out choices in the firm's privacy policy (0–5: marketing communication, data usage history, personal information storage, third-party sharing, tracking). Customer-level version uses this 4-item self-report scale.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Martin, K.D., Borah, A., & Palmatier, R.W. (2017). Data privacy: Effects on customer and firm performance. Journal of Marketing, 81(1), 36–58.

Keywords