The privacy policy is no longer just small print. In a era of data-driven decisions, constant cookie banners and increased public concern about the abuse of data, how companies communicate more than ever about privacy matters. But what makes a privacy policy reliable, and what do users really care when they see one?
Ziqi Zhong, a PhD student in Marketing at the London School of Economics (LSE), answers these questions through a project that combines economic modeling, behavioral sciences and artificial intelligence. His research investigates how companies can redesign privacy communication, not only for compliance, but also to build up trust, to maintain customers and reduce the impact of the environment.
“There is a growing recognition that privacy is not only a legal obligation, it is a user experience,” explains Zhong. “And how users react emotionally to the privacy policy has real business consequences.”
The initiative started with a formal economic model: what happens to customer behavior and fixed profit if a company accepts a more sustainable, user-respecting data strategy? The simulations of Zhong showed that when companies collect less data, explain their policy clearly and give users control, they not only meet the legal norms.
Image: https://www.globalnewsles.com/uploads/2025/05/7e83e2ac334e5399e4f616262fbf924.jpg
Image: System architecture of Privaai
Building on this, Zhong Privaai created, a tool that evaluates how consumers perceive privacy policy in eight psychological and ethical dimensions: transparency, control, readability, fairness, value, tone, legal frame and sustainability. With the help of a refined large language model (LLM), Privai processes the privacy policy and performs a score card with the user. These scores are not derived from compliance checklists, but from Real-World behavioral data.
That data came from Zhong’s lab experiments. In a series of studies, participants read variations of the same privacy policy and undergo in the holes and emotion recognition through facial analysis. Some policy measures used vague legal language; Others emphasized user choice, ethics or sustainability. The participants then assessed their impressions of clarity, reliability and fairness.
“We have found that specific language shifts-even a few words can have a strong influence on how users of a company think,” Zhong explains. “It’s not just what you say, but how you say it.”
These findings have been returned to the AI model and train it to approach how the average user can react emotionally and cognitively to different types of privacy -publications. In contrast to most automated privacy analysis tools that are only aimed at legality or readability, measures private perception. It helps companies to understand how their policies make people feel and adjust them accordingly.
But Privai is more than just a policy evaluator. It is also a benchmarking motor. The platform can generate distribution reports in various industries, allowing companies to compare their performance with colleagues and competitors. Whether it is fintech, health care, e-commerce or education, organizations can visualize where they rank in transparency, control, tone and ethical design alles by the lens of user perception.
“Privai not only offers feedback, but context,” says Zhong. “You can see how users respond to the policy of your competitors and to the leaders in your industry. That turns privacy into a strategically active.”
The project has a broader ambition: contribute to sustainable data strategies. The global digital economy is increasingly running on user data, but data centers only use more energy than the aviation industry. In fact, the cloud now has a larger carbon footprint than aviation. A single data center can consume as much electricity as 50,000 houses.
“We should not collect more data than we need, especially if users do not feel comfortable to share it in the first place,” says Zhong. “A clearer, fairer privacy policy not only reduces the user of the user reduces CO2 footprints.”
By designing privacy communication that is in line with human psychology, Zhong hopes to influence how organizations approach data management wider wise. His work offers a rare merger of ethical design, consumer psychology, machine learning and environmental thinking. Privai enables companies to optimize their privacy strategies, not only around what is legal, but around what is human and sustainable.
Zhong’s research was presented at major academic conferences, including the American Marketing Association Annual Conference (AMA), the European Marketing Academy Conference (EMAC) and the Informs Marketing Science Conference (ISMS). He is currently completing his doctorate in LSE, where his doctorate training also extends over London Business School and Imperial College London.
As recognition for his interdisciplinary contributions, Zhong has been appointed professor in Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (Swufe) in China, where he helps to develop a new curriculum in AI Governance, Data Ethics and responsible digital innovation.
His work, based on rigorous research and powered by Real-World needs, presents a new framework for responsible data use in the AI era. With Privai, Zhong hopes to inspire a global shift to privacy policy that are clear, empathetic and environmentally aware.
More information about Zhong’s research and initiatives can be found on Zzhong.io [https://zzhong.io/].
Mediacontact
Contact person: Ziqi Zhong
E -Mail: Send e -Mail [http://www.universalpressrelease.com/?pr=optimizing-privacy-policies-for-people-and-the-planet-a-new-ai-tool-measures-what-really-matters]
Country: China
Website: https://zzhong.io
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