Li, Jingren2024-08-222024-08-222024-06https://hdl.handle.net/11299/265094University of Minnesota M.A. thesis. June 2024. Major: Mass Communication. Advisor: Haseon Park. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 75 pages.Online behavioral advertising (OBA) refers to the advertising practices of using consumers’ online activity data, such as their search and web browsing histories, to deliver personalized digital ads (Federal Trade Commission, 2009a). Although OBA enhances the advertising effects by delivering ads that are more personally relevant to consumers, its underlying extensive and intensive data monitoring practices also lead to consumers’ feelings of being watched and listened to by corporations, which is called "perceived surveillance." Given that consumers’ online activity data is commonly collected and shared across different digital platforms in OBA, and there exists a limited understanding of how consumers respond to these cross-platform OBA messages, the present study aims to investigate how the OBA data-sharing extent (cross-platform vs. within-platform) influences consumers’ perceived surveillance and subsequent advertising responses. Through an online experiment, this study found that consumers reported significantly higher levels of perceived surveillance when exposed to cross-platform OBA messages compared to within-platform ones. Furthermore, increased perceived surveillance was associated with higher levels of advertising avoidance and irritation, decreased attitudes toward the ad, the brand, and the publisher, as well as reduced click-through and purchase intentions.enThesis or Dissertation