Beyond consent: how trust, privacy assurance, and rewards shape consumer data sharing

This study investigates how users’ desire for personalised online experiences and their perceptions of a website’s ethical data practices shape trust and cookie acceptance decisions across different website types. Using an online survey administered across five major Chinese web portals, the research captures users’ situational preferences regarding four categories of cookies. It examines how technological infrastructures, commercial incentives, and legal compliance jointly influence cookie-based data strategies. The results indicate that transparent user controls and reward-based incentives significantly enhance users’ willingness to share data. At the same time, ethical standards and trust cues play a critical role in sustaining long-term data authorisation. These findings demonstrate that businesses can strengthen user trust by balancing personalisation benefits with responsible data governance. Overall, the study advances understanding of cookie acceptance by integrating technological, commercial, and regulatory perspectives and offers novel insights into sustainable data donation mechanisms in digital marketing.