Effectiveness of privacy assurance mechanisms in users' privacy protection on social networking sites from the perspective of protection motivation theory

Abstract

Along with recent advancement of web technologies, social networking sites (SNSs) affect peoples lifestyles by enabling them to perform so many activities which were not easy to do before. However, protection of users' disclosed information becomes an important challenge not only for SNS users but also for governing organizations. This study focuses on SNS users' protection from privacy breaches that are made by or facilitated by SNS vendors and explores the effectiveness of privacy assurance mechanisms on SNS users' privacy preserving actions. This study proposes a conceptual model that explains SNS users' privacy protection behavior based on protection motivation theory. An empirical data was collected to validate the proposed research model. The results suggest that users' coping appraisals of the overall SNS assurance mechanisms, along with their threat appraisals, positively relate to their protection motivation. Further, the results confirm that privacy concern mediates the relationship between threat appraisals and coping appraisals. Finally, findings suggest that protective motivation discourages one's engagement in risky behavior (disclosing self on SNS), in addition to undertaking safeguards (customizing privacy settings). Meanwhile, we find that individuals' use of safeguards increases personal engagement in risky behaviors (self-disclosure).