The Utility and Privacy Effects of a Click

Recommenders are becoming one of the main ways to navigate the Internet. They recommend appropriate items to users based on their clicks, i.e., likes, ratings, purchases, etc. These clicks are key to providing relevant recommendations and, in this sense, have a significant utility. Since clicks reflect the preferences of users, they also raise privacy concerns. At first glance, there seems to be an inherent trade-off between the utility and privacy effects of a click. Nevertheless, a closer look reveals that the situation is more subtle: some clicks do improve utility without compromising privacy, whereas others decrease utility while hampering privacy.