Linking Surveys and Digital Trace Data: Insights From two Studies on Determinants of Data Sharing Behaviour

2022/11/09 by Henning Silber, Johannes Breuer, Christoph Beuthner +5 · 1 voice · 5 citations
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #Mobile Crowdsensing and Crowdsourcing #Privacy, Security, and Data Protection #Survey Methodology and Nonresponse

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/rssa.12954

openalex publication_date 2022/11/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

Abstract Combining surveys and digital trace data can enhance the analytic potential of both data types. We present two studies that examine factors influencing data sharing behaviour of survey respondents for different types of digital trace data: Facebook, Twitter, Spotify and health app data. Across those data types, we compared the relative impact of four factors on data sharing: data sharing method, respondent characteristics, sample composition and incentives. The results show that data sharing rates differ substantially across data types. Two particularly important factors predicting data sharing behaviour are the incentive size and data sharing method, which are both directly related to task difficulty and respondent burden. In sum, the paper reveals systematic variation in the willingness to share additional data which need to be considered in research designs linking surveys and digital traces.

Citations

• Die Low-Cost-Hypothese
• Integrating Survey Data and Digital Trace Data: Key Issues in Developing an Emerging Field
• Digital trace data collection through data donation

Cited by

• Meaningful informed consent? How participants experience and understand data donation
• Linkage Analysis Revised – Linking Digital Traces and Survey Data
• Who Consents to Sharing Their Tweets With Researchers? A Comparative Analysis of Selection Bias in Linked Survey and Social Media Data
• Linking Survey and LinkedIn Data: Understanding Usage and Consent Patterns
• Asking for Traces: A Vignette Study on Acceptability Norms and Personal Willingness to Donate Digital Trace Data

Discussions

• Received a nice mug from GESIS... It came with an award for the best cross-departmental collaboration for our paper "Linking Surveys and Digital Trace Data: Insights From two Studies on Determinants [bsky, 8 points, 1 comments]

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