Data Privacy and Consumer Trust in Digital Advertising Personalization: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The expansion of data-driven advertising enables firms to deliver increasingly relevant messages, yet the collection, inference, and exchange of personal information may generate privacy concerns and weaken consumer trust. This study aims to systematically synthesize conceptual and empirical evidence concerning the relationships among data privacy, consumer trust, and personalized digital advertising, while identifying the conditions under which personalization produces acceptance or resistance. A systematic literature review was conducted using Scopus and Web of Science following the PRISMA 2020 framework. Searches covered peer-reviewed publications from 2016 to 2026 and combined keywords related to data privacy, trust, and advertising personalization. From 192 initially identified records, 148 titles and abstracts were screened, 40 full-text articles were evaluated, and 10 empirical studies published between 2017 and 2022 were included in the qualitative synthesis. The findings indicate that relevant and informative personalization can improve advertising attitudes, engagement, self-disclosure, and purchase responses when personal data are voluntarily supplied, contextually appropriate, transparently processed, and supported by meaningful consumer control. Conversely, covert tracking, third-party data sharing, sensitive inference, and privacy violations increase perceived vulnerability, erode trust, stimulate psychological reactance, and promote advertising avoidance or opt-out behavior. Conceptually, the synthesis integrates privacy calculus, contextual integrity, communication privacy management, psychological reactance, and trust theory, positioning trust as the principal mechanism linking data-governance practices to consumer responses. The study concludes that privacy protection is not merely a regulatory constraint but a strategic capability for achieving legitimate, sustainable, and effective personalization.