Exploring information privacy regulation, risks, trust, and behavior

Abstract

Over the past few decades, governments worldwide have grappled with their approaches to regulating issues associated with information privacy. However, research on individuals’ perceptions of regulatory protections and the relationships between those perceptions and behavioral choices has been sparse.In this study, we develop and test a model that considers relationships between an antecedent variable (regulatory knowledge); a mediating structure that encompasses perceived privacy regulatory protection, trust, and privacy risk concerns; two outcome variables (protection behavior and regulatory preferences); and direct and moderating effects of perceived rewards. Using a sample of young UK consumers that we collected in cooperation with the European Commission, we find strong support for our overall model and for most of our hypotheses.We discuss implications for research, managerial practice, and regulation.