The impact of privacy concerns on trust, attitude and intention of using a search engine: an empirical analysis

Abstract

Search engines make use of sophisticated information technologies for collecting personal search information from the searchers. The users believe that misuse or unauthorised disclosure of their personal search information to third parties create threat to their privacy. This paper empirically examines the impact of privacy concerns on trust, attitude and intention of using a search engine. Research hypotheses were evolved and tested by empirical data collected from users of various search engines. The questionnaire survey was administered with 235 users and statistical analysis was done on a total of 199 usable responses. The major findings of the study are: i) user's privacy concern negatively influences trust, attitude and intention of using a search engine; ii) the negative effects of privacy concerns could be controlled by creating a positive attitude and building trust over the targeted search engine. A discussion of the implications of these findings for practice and research are given along with conclusions.