Feeling watched: The impact of perceived surveillance and privacy concern on consumer resistance to synced advertising

Abstract

As synced advertising, a personalization strategy where content is coordinated across multiple devices in real time, becomes more common, concerns about data use and consumer privacy continue to grow. This study investigates how awareness of synced advertising influences perceived surveillance and consumer resistance, and how these relationships are shaped by individual privacy concern and privacy cynicism. Drawing on persuasion knowledge theory and reactance theory, a quantitative study was conducted using an online survey with a final sample of 122 participants. A moderated mediation model (PROCESS Model 21) was used to test the proposed relationships. The results show that awareness of synced advertising significantly increases perceived surveillance, particularly among individuals with high privacy concern. Perceived surveillance, in turn, leads to increased consumer resistance. No direct relationship was found between awareness and resistance, suggesting that resistance is primarily driven by surveillance perceptions rather than awareness itself. Privacy cynicism did not significantly moderate the relationship between perceived surveillance and resistance, possibly due to sample characteristics. These findings indicate that synced advertising can evoke psychological discomfort and resistance, particularly among privacy-sensitive consumers. The study highlights the importance of transparency, real user control, and privacysensitive targeting strategies for marketers, and offers implications for policymakers aiming to regulate personalized advertising practices.