Dataveillance inhibits legitimate communication: causal evidence for chilling effects.

Chilling effects are an undesirable consequence of the datafication of communication: people may refrain from entirely lawful online activities due to fear of negative repercussions based on their digital traces. Our preregistered, longitudinal online field experiment randomly exposed 827 participan...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Communication Vol. 76; no. 4; pp. 277 - 290
Autores principales: Festic, Noemi, Büchi, Moritz, Latzer, Michael, Odermatt, Céline
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Oxford University Press / USA Aug2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Aug2026
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      pub: Oxford University Press / USA
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        10.1093/joc/jqag004
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        atl: Dataveillance inhibits legitimate communication: causal evidence for chilling effects.
      aug:
        au:
          Festic, Noemi
          Büchi, Moritz
          Latzer, Michael
          Odermatt, Céline
        affil:
          Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
          Institute of Applied Media Studies, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland
      su:
        Digital communications
        Information-seeking behavior
        Disclosure
        Electronic surveillance
        Data analytics
        Chilling effect (Public policy)
      sug:
        subj:
          Digital communications
          Information-seeking behavior
          Disclosure
          Electronic surveillance
          Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors
          Data analytics
          Chilling effect (Public policy)
      keyword:
        chilling effects
        copyrightHolder:International Communication Association
        copyrightYear:2026
        dataveillance
        focus groups
        framed field experiment
        inLanguage:en
        longitudinal
        online experiment
        publisher:Oxford University Press
        quantitative
        representative
        sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqag004
        self-censorship
        surveillance
        chilling effects
        copyrightHolder:International Communication Association
        copyrightYear:2026
        dataveillance
        focus groups
        framed field experiment
        inLanguage:en
        longitudinal
        online experiment
        publisher:Oxford University Press
        quantitative
        representative
        sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqag004
        self-censorship
        surveillance
      ab: Chilling effects are an undesirable consequence of the datafication of communication: people may refrain from entirely lawful online activities due to fear of negative repercussions based on their digital traces. Our preregistered, longitudinal online field experiment randomly exposed 827 participants to accounts of dataveillance at 19 prompts across six weeks. Within individuals, this reduced comfort with online opinion sharing, information seeking, and information disclosure. Across individuals, greater total exposure was not robustly associated with lower comfort. Women, older, and less-educated participants reported lower overall comfort, with no evidence of sociodemographic moderation of chilling effects. Follow-up focus groups validated these results. Our study advances chilling effects theory and contributes causal evidence for dataveillance-induced self-censorship in a representative sample. The implications of this subtle relinquishing of autonomy are relevant for individual well-being and democratic participation in societies increasingly shaped by dataveillance.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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