Effects of Individual Trust in Broadcast Media and the Internet on Privacy-Risking Uses of E-Health

Abstract

People claim to be concerned about information privacy on the Internet, yet they frequently give out personal information to online vendors and correspondents with whom they have little, if any, prior experience. This behavior is known as the privacy paradox and is particularly relevant to the context of e-health, due to the special risks of health information exposure. Using data from the 2005 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), this study addresses a key question regarding online health information privacy: Do individuals self-police risky e-health activities (i.e., uses where personal information is given out) or are they indifferent to risk based upon generalized trust in broadcast media and the Internet as sources for health information? In exploring this question, our study contrasts several alternative models of health trust, and recommends a new partial-mediation model for future studies. The results show that Internet trust mediates most effects of broadcast media trust on Internet use and that Internet trust plays a much smaller role in motivating Internet uses that are risky than is the case for low-risk uses. These results have important implications for researchers, policymakers, and healthcare administrators in determining the level of privacy protection individuals need in their use of e-health applications.