Online profiling poses a lot of challenges, not only of the legal kind. Carolina Lisboa Pinto’s research intends to tackle many of the questions related to the safeguarding of digital consumers from harmful effects of online profiling.
Online marketplaces offer convenience and ease but also influence consumer purchasing decisions through 'persuasion profiles' built on data and automation, potentially rendering them vulnerable. European consumer laws, aimed at protecting specific vulnerable groups, may be inadequate to address the broader power imbalance between such powerful digital platforms and consumers.
It is superfluous to say that not all consumers are the same. Different consumers not only want different things but also have different personalities, vulnerabilities, and skills. Should European consumer law therefore become more differentiated?
The Consumer ID project will break new ground by deconstructing the framework on which consumer laws have been built, namely the concept of the consumer as a weaker party in relation to businesses.
