Communication Privacy Management Research Articles

Cultural discourses of privacy: Interrogating globalized workplace relationships in Japan

ABSTRACTUsing Carbaugh’s (2005. Cultures in conversation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 2007. Cultural discourse analysis: Communication practices and intercultural encounters. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 36(3), 167–182) cultural discourse analysis and Petronio’s (2002. Boundaries of privacy: Dialectics of disclosure. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press) Communication Privacy Management (CPM) Theory, this study highlights four cultural premises that garner intercultural privacy management between foreign English language teachers (ELTs) and Japanese coworkers (JCWs) in Japan. The analysis revealed that ELTs: (a) expected not to be a “free space” for privacy inquisition by JCWs, and (b) expected voluntary reciprocity in (egalitarian) workplace relationships. JCWs viewed: (a) privacy inquisitions as acts of kindness/caring and (b) soliciting help from a supervisor as providing opportunities for better care. This study calls for attention to intercultural privacy management and enhances CPM’s cultural criteria.

Managing information following hurtful experiences

The present study explores how personal network members manage information related to hurtful experiences. The study uses communication privacy management (CPM) theory as the theoretical framework for a theme analysis of responses of disclosers of hurtful experiences and confidants regarding how they manage information related to a hurtful experience. Results of the thematic analysis provide insight into the process by which people disclose a hurtful experience with a personal network member, establish rules for sharing information, manage privacy boundaries, and deal with privacy turbulence. Findings illuminate the unique challenges and circumstances present in the context of hurtful experiences. The implications for coping with a hurtful experience and extending CPM theory are discussed.

Managing the virtual boundaries: Online social networks, disclosure, and privacy behaviors

Online social networks are designed to encourage disclosure while also having the ability to disrupt existing privacy boundaries. This study assesses those individuals who are the most active online: “Digital Natives.” The specific focus includes participants’ privacy beliefs; how valuable they believe their personal, private information to be; and what risks they perceive in terms of disclosing this information in a fairly anonymous online setting. A model incorporating these concepts was tested in the context of communication privacy management theory. Study findings suggest that attitudinal measures were stronger predictors of privacy behaviors than were social locators. In particular, support was found for a model positing that if an individual placed a higher premium on their personal, private information, they would then be less inclined to disclose such information while visiting online social networking sites.

Communication privacy management of students in Latvia

The lack of communication privacy boundaries among students and the fault of self-disclosure are two main reasons for unforeseen distress, broken relationships and trust, vulnerability and conflicts in universities. Based on S. Petronio’s theory of communication privacy management this research investigates the interaction of domestic students and foreign students in Latvia with their peers in order to set up privacy and disclosure boundaries that do not violate peer privacy, especially in a sensitive multicultural context. In fact, the presence of private information and the willingness to disclose it is often confronted with numerous privacy dilemmas and issues regarding their secureness, especially in universities where peers are young with different cultural backgrounds. This article analyzes the privacy management skills of locals and foreigners and reveals how security of information is managed between them stemming from social penetration and communication privacy management theory. Privacy management is significant in facing the dilemma of communication privacy and facilitates solving already existing problems of privacy among students

Grief Communication and Privacy Rules: Examining the Communication of Individuals Bereaved by the Death of a Family Member

ABSTRACTCommunication about one’s grief is both essential and complicated. We employ communication privacy management theory to examine how bereaved individuals manage the revelation and concealment of private information about the death of a parent or sibling. In-depth interviews (N = 21) with the bereaved indicate that (a) they conceptualize information surrounding the death and their grief as private, (b) they create rules to govern their private information, and (c) violations of those rules result in turbulence. Specifically, individuals employ selectivity, avoidance, and positivity rules that dictate what and with whom they share. We discuss the implications of our findings on grief communication scholarship, CPM theory, and practical issues for helping bereaved individuals and their loved ones navigate discussions about death and the deceased.

“Taking Good Care of Our Health”: Parent-Adolescent Perceptions of Boundary Management About Health Information

Family members’ communication about health has a significant impact on issues of obtaining social support, avoiding stigma, and seeking and receiving appropriate medical treatment and care. A Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theoretical perspective was used to analyze 85 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with parents and one of their adolescent children in 40 families. Findings reveal intergenerational motivations and strategies for managing individual and collective privacy boundaries around health information and the consequences of this management for individuals and families. Motivations include protecting personal privacy, preventing stress, and soliciting social support. Strategies for boundary management include humor and topic avoidance. Implications for future research in the areas of privacy management, health, and family relationships are discussed.

Measuring individuals’ concerns over collective privacy on social networking sites

With the rise of social networking sites (SNSs), individuals not only disclose personal information but also share private information concerning others online. While shared information is co-constructed by self and others, personal and collective privacy boundaries become blurred. Thus there is an increasing concern over information privacy beyond the individual perspective. However, limited research has empirically examined if individuals are concerned about privacy loss not only of their own but their social ties’; nor is there an established instrument for measuring the collective aspect of individuals’ privacy concerns. In order to address this gap in existing literature, we propose a conceptual framework of individuals’ collective privacy concerns in the context of SNSs. Drawing on the Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory (Petronio, 2002), we suggest three dimensions of collective privacy concerns, namely, collective information access, control and diffusion. This is followed by the development and empirical validation of a preliminary scale of SNS collective privacy concerns (SNSCPC). Structural model analyses confirm the three-dimensional conceptualization of SNSCPC and reveal antecedents of SNS users’ concerns over violations of the collective privacy boundaries. This paper serves as a starting point for theorizing privacy as a collective notion and for understanding online information disclosure as a result of social interaction and group influence.

The dialectics of mobile communication in South African romantic relationships

Abstract Communication technology such as the mobile phone often presents a double-edged sword in romantic relationships. While the mobile phone can enhance the quality of communication, it can simultaneously become a source of conflict. The dialectic framework of Communication Privacy Management presents a nuanced lens from which to investigate the rules for the use of the mobile phone in the dyad of romantic relationships. This study sought to investigate mobile phone usage rules that are negotiated by South African adolescents and young adults in their romantic relationships and the factors that influence the negotiation. The study specifically focused on rules around mobile privacy management. Findings from survey data indicate that the negotiation of mobile phone usage rules is a crucial part of the health of young adult relationships. Variables of gender and length of relationship were important factors in the rule development process. Implications, limitations and future research are discussed.

(Re)Negotiating Our Relationship: How Contradictions Emerge in Sibling Privacy Boundaries

ABSTRACTSibling relationships go through a period of change when one or both of the siblings becomes an emerging adult and moves out of the family home. Through a communication privacy management lens, we can begin to understand how communication during this transition period is (re)negotiated and used to deidentify from the family while still maintaining a sense of connection with the family unit. Sibling communication during this life stage provides greater understanding for how siblings are choosing to communicate once the relationship has become more voluntary in nature. Through an interpretive analysis, several patterns related to how siblings negotiate privacy rules emerged. The themes we identified—rules, co-ownership, and permeable boundaries—all represented ways in which siblings communicated privacy negotiation as being contradictory. These contradictions provide a foundation for more closely examining how siblings are using privacy management and communicating in ways that highlight the extent to which they connect privacy management to closeness in the sibling relationship.

How Formerly Overweight and Obese Individuals Negotiate Disclosure of Their Weight Loss

ABSTRACTOverweight and obese individuals frequently experience weight-based stigma, and reducing stigma is one reason people want to lose weight. However, research suggests even after individuals become a normal weight, knowledge of their old body size can result in stigma. Through interviews of 30 formerly overweight or obese individuals and the framework of Communication Privacy Management theory, this study found the vast majority of participants perceived more benefits from disclosing their larger identity than risks, regardless of weight-loss method. Participants revealed their weight loss in order to inspire others, build relationships, or hold themselves accountable. Conversely, a few participants concealed to protect their thinner identity (i.e., they feared stigma) or to avoid coming across as boastful. In contrast to previous studies, this investigation suggests most participants were not dissuaded from revealing their former body size due to a threat of residual stigma. Participants’ disclosure was overwhelmingly met with encouraging and supportive responses.

Living in a big data world: Predicting mobile commerce activity through privacy concerns

As advertisers increasingly rely on mobile-based data, consumer perceptions regarding the collection and use of such data becomes of great interest to scholars and practitioners. Recent industry data suggests advertisers seeking to leverage personal data offered via mobile devices would be wise to acknowledge and address the privacy concerns held by mobile users. Utilizing the theoretical foundation of communication privacy management (CPM), the current study investigates commonly understood privacy concerns such as collection, control, awareness, unauthorized secondary use, improper access and a newly adapted dimension of location tracking, trust in mobile advertisers, and attitudes toward mobile commerce, to predict mobile commerce engagement. Data from this study indicate that control, unauthorized access, trust in mobile advertisers, and attitude toward mobile commerce significantly predicted 43% of the variance in mobile commerce activity.

Communicating About Chronic Caregiving in the Workplace: Employees’ Disclosure Preferences, Intentions, and Behaviors

A growing number of Americans are living with chronic health conditions that require informal, ongoing care from family members who are also in the paid labor force. In this exploratory study, communication privacy management is used to make sense of chronic caregiving (N = 48–64) and noncaregiving (N = 174–178) employees’ disclosure preferences, intentions, and behaviors in the workplace. We find that workers in general anticipate that they would disclose to many individuals at work about their caregiving, but employees actually disclose much less information to far fewer people at work when they occupy the chronic caregiver role. For chronic caregivers, positive perceptions about coworker supportiveness predict increased disclosure behaviors. Finally, future research directions as employers, workers, and policy makers prepare for the complex challenges associated with negotiating paid work and unpaid chronic caregiving are provided.

Mobile communication privacy management in romantic relationships: a dialectical approach

ABSTRACTCommunication technologies, such as the mobile phone, often represent a double-edged sword in romantic relationships. While the mobile phone can enhance the quality of communication, it can simultaneously become a source of conflict. The dialectic framework of communication privacy management offers a nuanced lens from which to investigate rules for the use of the mobile phone in the dyadic of romantic relationships. This study investigates mobile phone usage rules that are negotiated by adolescents and young adults in romantic relationships. The study specifically focuses on rules around mobile privacy management. Findings from in-depth interviews indicate that the negotiation of rules is a crucial part of young adult relationships. Enhancing trust and fostering harmony were important factors in the rule development process. The implications, limitations, and future possibilities for research are discussed.

Exploring the Effects of Workplace Health Promotions: A Critical Examination of a Familiar Organizational Practice

As workplaces become sites where health issues are addressed, organizations have an ever-increasing presence in the personal lives of workers. The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how workplace health promotions (WHPs) violate four types of boundaries: (a) cultural, (b) privacy, (c) confidentiality, and (d) ethical, all of which are managed through communication. We apply Petronio’s (2002) communication privacy management theory to frame health-related boundary negotiations between employee and employer. This chapter concludes with a call for more research on WHPs from interpretive, critical, feminist, and postcolonial approaches.

Sharing bad news of a lung cancer diagnosis: understanding through communication privacy management theory.

The aim of this paper is to understand the process of information disclosure and privacy as patients share their news of lung cancer with significant others. Twenty patients with lung cancer and 17 family members/friends accompanying them at diagnosis-giving completed either individual or dyad semi-structured interviews. Initial thematic analysis, then Petronio's Communication Privacy Management theory was used to inform interpretation. Patients described a sense of ownership of the news of their cancer and sought control of how, when and with whom it was shared. Family members expressed a need to follow the patients' rules in sharing this news, which limited their own support systems. Patients and family members had to live within the relational communication boundaries in order to maintain their trusting relationship and avoid potential disruptions. Patients as individuals are strongly interlinked with significant others, which impacts on their experience of disclosing private information. This shapes their psychological processes and outcomes impacting on their illness experience. This should be considered when developing interventions to support patients with sharing bad news. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Using communication privacy management theory to examine HIV disclosure to sexual partners/spouses among PLHIV in Guangxi

The current study employed Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory to examine the factors associated with disclosure of HIV infection to sexual partners or spouses as well as gender differences in these associations among a sample of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in China. A total of 1254 PLHIV who had 5–16 years old children were invited to answer the questions related to disclosure of HIV infection to sexual partners/spouses. Prevalence of HIV disclosure was reported. Key variables related to CPM theory (such as motivations for disclosure and nondisclosure, HIV-related stigma, and relational factors) were compared between females and males. Logistic regression was employed to determine the factors of influencing whether or not the participants disclosed their HIV status to spouses/partners for the male, the female and the combined samples. Fear of rejection was a significant predictor of HIV nondisclosure for the male, the female and the combined samples. Concern about privacy was a significant factor in not disclosing to sexual partners/spouses only in the male sample. The endorsement of duty to inform/educate was the only motivation factor that was significantly related to HIV disclosure for the three samples. The motivation to establish a close/supportive relationship with intimate partners/spouses was found to be associated with HIV disclosure for the combined and male samples. The current study confirmed the utilities of CPM in studying HIV disclosure to sexual partners/spouse. The findings have theoretical and practical implications for HIV disclosure interventions among PLHIV in Guangxi.

A Model of Privacy Control: Examining the Criteria That Predict Emerging Adults’ Likelihood to Reveal Private Information to Their Parents

The primary goal of this study was to establish a model of privacy control, stemming from Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory, between the parent and the emerging adult child (N = 851) to predict the likelihood to reveal private information. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the study confirmed that the CPM criteria variables (culture, gender, context, motivation, and risk–benefit ratio) exert an influence on revealing private information. Three psychosocial outcome variables were also examined: rumination, stress, and well-being. Specifically, emerging adults reporting a communicatively open family relational culture, low levels of relational quality, and low levels of relational risk were more likely to reveal private information to their parents, while personal characteristics, perceived reciprocity, characteristics of the confidant, and stigma risks did not significantly affect the likelihood to reveal private information. The implications of the study suggest that predictors of privacy management center on the communication and relational factors between emerging adult children and their parents.

Managing Privacy and the Decision to Disclose: Disclosures of Sexual Victimization

This study explores the communication used by survivors after they have experienced an incident of sexual victimization. Specifically, it examines sexual victimization survivors’ criteria for disclosure through the lens of communication privacy management theory. Participants completed an online questionnaire in which they described their first disclosure incident. Qualitative analysis of these incidents illustrated survivors’ reasons for disclosing, anxieties during disclosure and the power the recipient often has in shaping the outcome of the disclosure event. These findings may be used to aid future survivors and recipients of this high-risk disclosure.

Young Adults’ Management of Privacy on Facebook with Multiple Generations of Family Members

How young adults communicate with multiple generations of family members today includes the use of Facebook to maintain family relationships. This study applies communication privacy management (CPM) theory to explore how young adults interact with and manage private information across different generations of their family through Facebook. Overall, 383 young adult participants completed an online survey about online and offline Facebook communication among siblings, parents, and grandparents. Participants interacted with siblings most often through Facebook, followed by parents, and grandparents. The interior family privacy orientation and Facebook privacy management practices significantly predicted variations of online and offline Facebook communication with siblings, parents, and grandparents about social media. The study also examined different types of Facebook socialization messages that young adults conveyed to family members about effective Facebook interactions and ways to preempt privacy breakdowns with their Facebook friends. Implications to CPM theory and future research recommendations are also identified.

Privacy and Family Communication about Genetic Cancer Risk: Investigating Factors Promoting Women’s Disclosure Decisions

This study explores the family communication of women (N = 175) who have tested positive for a gene alteration that predisposes them to an increased risk for cancer. More specifically, this study utilizes family communication patterns theory and communication privacy management theory to investigate the role of family communication and privacy management in women’s communication about genetic cancer risk with family members. Results found significant direct effects between conversation orientation and both personal and family privacy orientation as well as between conformity orientation and personal privacy orientation. Results also found indirect effects between conversation orientation and communication about genetic cancer risk. Overall this study shows the importance of family communication environment and privacy management in communicating about genetic cancer risk.