Abstract
Participating in social network websites entails voluntarily sharing private information, and the explosive growth of social network websites over the last decade suggests shifting views on privacy. Concurrently, new anti-terrorism laws, such as the USA Patriot Act, ask citizens to surrender substantial claim to privacy in the name of greater security. I address two important questions regarding individuals' views on privacy raised by these trends. First, how does prompting individuals to consider security concerns affect their views on government actions that jeopardize privacy? Second, does the use of social network websites alter the effect of prompted security concerns? I posit that prompting individuals to consider security concerns does lead to an increased willingness to accept government actions that jeopardize privacy, but that frequent users of websites like Facebook are less likely to be swayed by prompted security concerns. An embedded survey experiment provides support for both parts of my claim.
Highlights
Technological progress brings new challenges to privacy, potentially spurring evolution of individuals’ views toward privacy
I show via an embedded survey experiment that while prompting individuals to consider security concerns can sway individuals toward greater support of governmental monitoring, frequent social network website use provides a bulwark against the anti-privacy effects of this prompt
The survey experiment’s treatment evaluates the effect of a threatening, prosecurity frame on the willingness of respondents to allow privacy intrusions by the government, in an area directly related to the concerns of users of social network websites and in the absence of a proximate threat
Summary
Technological progress brings new challenges to privacy, potentially spurring evolution of individuals’ views toward privacy. Governments seeking intelligence against asymmetric threats such as terrorism increasingly ask–or order–citizens to give up privacy in the name of security How do these two antiprivacy trends interact in shaping individuals’ views toward privacy and governmental monitoring? I show via an embedded survey experiment that while prompting individuals to consider security concerns can sway individuals toward greater support of governmental monitoring, frequent social network website use provides a bulwark against the anti-privacy effects of this prompt. This suggests changes in both government strategy and privacy protections over time as social network website use increases. My focus on individuals’ views toward privacy and governmental monitoring provides a complement to an existing literature that is largely focused on legal privacy protections [1,2,3,4] and technical mechanisms to reduce threats to privacy [5]
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