The Dark Side of AI Chatbots: Ethics, Privacy and Responsible Data Usage in Digital Marketing

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-978-0_19How to use a DOI?

Keywords

AI chatbots; Foucauldian Surveillance; Privacy Calculus Theory; Critical review

Abstract

Rise of artificial intelligence chatbots has changed the interaction pattern between customers and brands. Chatbots provide various benefits to firms such as operational efficiency, personalized recommendations, customized experience and scalable engagement. But the critical risks that are often overlooked are manipulation, surveillance and influence on customer’s purchase behaviour. This study tries to understand this be integrating Foucauldian notions of surveillance and the principles of privacy calculus. From Foucauladian notions view chatbots are like digital watchers that continuously observe and shape customers’ behaviour. From privacy calculus view, customer engage with chatbots because of convenience, customization and personalization against the concerns over privacy and fairness. This dual lens role helped in listing down six interconnected risks: surveillance and data misuse, manipulative persuasion, emotional misalignment, identity shaping and self-monitoring, dependence leading to reduced autonomy, and algorithmic bias resulting in exclusion. These can be termed as cycle of surveillance and compliance, where consumer’s justifications for continued use inadvertently reinforce marketing power, gradually weakening individual autonomy and trust. This paper also provides theoretical insights, managerial practices, consumer strategies, and policy directions for more transparent, ethical, and accountable uses of AI in marketing.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Soma Amol Dhaigude
AU  - Kuldeep Baishya
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - The Dark Side of AI Chatbots: Ethics, Privacy and Responsible Data Usage in Digital Marketing
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st Engineering Data Analytics and Management Conference (EAMCON 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 211
EP  - 222
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-978-0_19
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-978-0_19
ID  - Dhaigude2025
ER  -