Privacy Calculus Theory in the Digital Government Context: The Case of Taiwan’s New eID Policy

Abstract

Based on the case of the national electronic identification card (New eID) policy in Taiwan, this study integrated the government’s components with a privacy calculus model to analyze factors which affect personal data disclosure intention. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the survey data and explore how citizens balance benefits and risks associated with the New eID issue. The research results suggested that financial compensation, personalized services, and service compatibility can enhance cognition of privacy-related benefits of citizens, while this cognition will further increase willingness to authorize their personal data. Moreover, the impact of government elements on citizens’ willingness to authorize their personal information also has statistical backings. Citizens’ cognition of privacy-related risks, however, has no statistical effect within the model, which is contrary to findings from previous studies. The study attempted to make contributions to supplementing the connotation of an extant theoretical framework, and discussed the privacy-related questions concerning digital government.