Privacy Protection Behavior Research Articles

Privacy Protection Behaviors from a New Angle: Exploratory Analysis on a Russian Sample

To understand why people engage in privacy protection behaviors on the Internet, multiple researchers tried to reveal the underlying factors of the phenomenon. The results were ambiguous. Identifying privacy concerns as a mediating construct, some researchers were able to establish its influence on protection behaviors, others were not. In addition, the structure of hypothesized factors affecting privacy concerns differed from work to work. This paper aims to shed light on the inconsistencies in the previous research. To achieve this, we perform an exploratory analysis of factors affecting privacy protection behavior on the Internet. We conduct a survey on a Russian sample (N=228) and perform the analysis using a technique of structural equation modeling. Our results suggest the following: (a) privacy protection behavior is a multidimensional construct, with each behavior type being affected by its own set of factors; (b) privacy concerns might have a dynamic structure, that is dependent on the context and the environment of the target population. Given these findings, we conclude that future research should consider a specific type of protection behavior together with characteristics of the target population and to refrain from generalization of the results from other domains or protection behavior types.

The Effect of Stressful Life Events on Online Privacy Protective Behavior of Israeli Students

ABSTRACTThis exploratory study investigates the influence of stressful life events on privacy‐protective behavior. We examine the effects of the ongoing state of war in Israel on the rate of deliberate falsification of personal details during website registration, in a user study of 107 students at Israeli universities. The students were queried using a quantitative method in online closed‐ended questionnaires. This research builds on our previous work (Weinberger & Bouhnik, 2021) examining the effects of other stressful life events, specifically the COVID‐19 pandemic, on the privacy‐protective behavior of Israeli students. We found that distrust of website operators and the desire to remain anonymous are the most common reasons for identity falsification. In addition, our analysis showed that the greater the concern over privacy, the more likely identity falsification was to occur. The Israel‐Hamas War in Israel seems to have exacerbated privacy concerns among online users, in turn increasing the tendency of users to exhibit privacy‐protective behavior.

Sell your soul for a pot of gold: Privacy paradox in surveillance capitalism

The current study aims to examine the underlying psychological processes involved in privacy protection behaviors among tourists in retail environments using surveillance technologies. Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and Privacy Calculus Theory (PCT) were employed to understand threat and coping appraisals, benefits (control vs monetary), and their relationships with protective behavioral intentions and actual behaviors. Data was collected from 554 respondents who had visited a retail store while traveling in the past 6 months using an online questionnaire. Three structural equation models, full mediation, partial mediation, and moderated mediation were tested and compared. The partial mediation model exhibited the best fit. Perceived severity and susceptibility increased protective behavioral intentions, while self-efficacy decreased intentions. Control compensation positively influenced intentions only. Behavioral intentions partially mediated relationships between independent variables and actual protective behaviors. No significant moderation effects were found. Integrating PMT and PCT addresses a significant gap in examining tourists’ privacy-protective behaviors in retail surveillance contexts. Additionally, it clarifies the effectiveness of control and monetary benefits in mitigating privacy concerns.

What triggers customers’ privacy protection behavior: The effect of surveillance cameras and data collection disclosure

ABSTRACT Despite all the benefits of what customer data can bring to the marketing field, customers’ privacy concern is one of the key challenges that comes with Big Data, privacy threats have evolved along with the evolution of information technology and resulted in privacy protection behaviour among customers. The present research conducted an experimental study to examine the effects of external stimuli in triggering privacy protection behaviour, including the presence of surveillance cameras, company disclosure of biometric data collection, and customers’ prior knowledge of privacy. The study involved a 3 (environmental awareness: low/average/high) x 2 (company disclosure: yes/no) between subject designs. Data was collected on the Tencent questionnaire platform (https://wj.qq.com/) with 554 effective responses. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyze the data. The results revealed that the presence of surveillance cameras, company disclosure in biometric data collection, and the customer’s prior knowledge of privacy are crucial factors in triggering a customer’s privacy protection behaviour in the service industry. Practical implications for retail store operators and theoretical contributions are discussed. The current study extends the knowledge of privacy protection by incorporating additional factors (privacy literacy) into the existing protection motivation theory. Additionally, it extends its application to the physical environment which is often overlooked.

Role-based privacy cynicism and local privacy activism: How data stewards navigate privacy in higher education

This study examines the impact of role-based constraints on privacy cynicism within higher education, a workplace increasingly subjected to surveillance. Using a thematic analysis of 15 in-depth interviews conducted between 2017 and 2023 with data stewards in the California State University System, the research explores the reasons behind data stewards’ privacy cynicism, despite their knowledge of privacy and their own ability to protect it. We investigate how academic data custodians navigate four role-based tensions: the conflict between the institutional and personal definitions of privacy; the mutual reinforcement between their privacy-cynical attitudes and their perceptions of student privacy attitudes; the influence of role constraints on data stewards’ privacy-protective behaviors; and the contrast between the negatively valued societal surveillance and the positively valued university surveillance. The findings underscore the significance of considering organizational privacy cultures and role-based expectations in studying privacy cynicism. The study contributes to the theoretical understanding of privacy cynicism and offers practical implications for organizations, emphasizing the importance of aligning organizational definitions of privacy with employees’ understanding. Future research should further explore the mutual reinforcement of privacy cynicism in the relationship between data providers and data consumers (which we call the “spiral of resignation”) and consider the impact of role-based constraints in other organizational contexts.

The Influence of Self-Efficacy of College Students in Privacy Protection and Behavior in Social Networking Context

In the era of mobile social media, users who show themselves on social platforms will face the risk of privacy breaches. Frequent data leaks and increasingly complex social media privacy protection terms intensify users’ privacy concerns, along with mandatory privacy exposure, contributing to privacy fatigue among users. This study examines the changes in privacy protection behavior among college students under the influences of privacy concerns and privacy fatigue from the perspective of self-efficacy in privacy protection. Data is collected through a questionnaire survey, and a structural equation model is established to provide insights into protecting user privacy. The results of this research indicate that college students’ internal self-efficacy in privacy protection has a negative impact on privacy fatigue. College students’ privacy concerns are significantly negatively correlated with their willingness to disclose information, while privacy fatigue is significantly positively correlated with their willingness to disclose information. Privacy fatigue among college students has a significant positive influence on both their disclosure intention and the behavior of disengaging from privacy protection.

The Role of Perceived Surveillance and Privacy Cynicism in Effects of Multiple Synced Advertising Exposures on Brand Attitude

Technological advancements have made it possible to personalize advertising messages across media in real time based on consumers’ offline media behavior (i.e., synced advertising). This is thought to positively influence consumers’ brand attitudes. However, consumers encountering multiple synced advertising exposures could decrease the strategy’s effectiveness by increasing the perceptions of surveillance among consumers. Moreover, these effects may differ depending on privacy cynicism; consumers may decrease their privacy protection behaviors as a result of feeling hopeless and frustrated by the high demands and lack of control of their data being used for personalized advertising purposes. An online experiment (N = 527) showed the more that ads were synchronized, the higher the perceived surveillance, which led to less positive brand attitudes for participants with the lowest levels of privacy cynicism and positive brand attitudes only for participants with intermediate to high levels of privacy cynicism. The results advance theory on the direct effects, underlying mechanisms, and consumer-related factors that play a role in synced advertising effects. It shows that synced advertising could be a promising advertising strategy but that considerations around privacy and ethics are essential.

A machine learning model to predict privacy fatigued users from social media personalized advertisements

The increasing use of social media platforms as personalized advertising channels is a double-edged sword. A high level of personalization on these platforms increases users’ sense of losing control over personal data: This could trigger the privacy fatigue phenomenon manifested in emotional exhaustion and cynicism toward privacy, which leads to a lack of privacy-protective behavior. Machine learning has shown its effectiveness in the early prediction of people’s psychological state to avoid such consequences. Therefore, this study aims to classify users with low and medium-to-high levels of privacy fatigue, based on their information privacy awareness and big-five personality traits. A dataset was collected from 538 participants via an online questionnaire. The prediction models were built using the Support Vector Machine, Naïve Bayes, K-Nearest Neighbors, Decision Tree, and Random Forest classifiers, based on the literature. The results showed that awareness and conscientiousness trait have a significant relationship with privacy fatigue. Support Vector Machine and Naïve Bayes classifiers outperformed the other classifiers by attaining a classification accuracy of 78%, F1 of 87%, recall of 100% and 98%, and precision of 78% and 79% respectively, using five-fold cross-validation.

Antecedents of Consumers’ Privacy Protection Behavior and Intention to Disclose Personal Information: Mediating Role of Personal Information Transparency

Online platforms have exhibited several perceived and actual challenges to privacy. Using a complex research model, this study examines direct, mediating, and moderating effects on several privacy variables. It involved 335 respondents using systematic random sampling from online consumers and hypotheses testing using structural equation modeling. The antecedents of consumers’ intention to disclose personal information were confirmed for privacy vulnerability and privacy benefit. On the other hand, the antecedent of consumers’ privacy protection behavior in relation to privacy vulnerability was found to be statistically insignificant but confirming privacy benefits. As predicted, the mediating roles of privacy information transparency were proven empirically, and so were the moderating roles of privacy cynicism. This research addresses research gaps suggested by previous esteemed scholars and suggests several guidelines for practitioners. Finally, it outlined core research themes for future researchers.

ANTECEDENTS OF PRIVACY PROTECTION BEHAVIORS AT THE VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL LEVELS

Internet users face privacy threats when using online services. Privacy protection behaviors, such as adjusting privacy settings, can alleviate some of these threats. Research shows that individuals’ privacy protection behaviors (PPBs) depend on their socio-demographics characteristics, digital engagement, privacy concerns, and online privacy literacy (OPL). In addition, it has been suggested that due to the complexity of privacy issues online, an adequate level of OPL is required to translate privacy concerns into protective actions. Although previous research examined the antecedents of PPBs at a general level, it has rarely made a clear distinction and comparison between PPBs aimed toward the practices of institutions (vertical level) and those aimed toward other internet users (horizontal level). This is somewhat surprising given that many scholars underscored the importance of context in online privacy-related matters. Therefore, this study compared the antecedents of PPBs at the general, vertical, and horizontal levels. To this end, we tested three models to examine how socio-demographic characteristics, digital engagement, privacy concerns, and OPL influence PPBs at the general, vertical, and horizontal levels, and assessed whether OPL moderates the relationship between privacy concerns and PPBs at different levels. The models were tested using linear regression on a nation-wide sample of 1,015 internet users aged 18+ from Slovenia. The analysis revealed important differences between the levels in case of gender, age, and privacy concerns, but not OPL.

Privacy concerns and social desirability bias

Privacy concerns may influence many choices consumers make. However, their expressed concerns are sometimes inconsistent with their information-sharing and privacy-protecting behaviors. Many theories have been proposed to explain the paradoxical gap between privacy attitudes and behaviors. Part of the privacy paradox may be explained with two measures that have received limited consideration: impulsiveness and social desirability bias (SDB). Surveys of US adults in 2015 and 2022 included questions to measure several types of privacy concerns along with impulsive tendencies and SDB (N = 2729). Age, education, gender, race, income, and impulsive tendencies were linked with some privacy concerns. If people with above-average concerns also disclose personal information on impulse, it might explain part of the paradox. Large coefficients on the SDB measure suggest that individuals who adjust their responses to be consistent with social norms may also overstate specific privacy concerns. For these individuals, their high expressed concerns may be inconsistent with their privacy behaviors. When researchers try to explain consumer attitudes or actions that involve privacy, multiple privacy concern dimensions should be considered and demographics, impulsive tendencies, and SDB should be included in the models.

Balancing perceptions of targeting: An investigation of political microtargeting transparency through a calculus approach

Over the last few years, political advertisers have moved with their audiences: to social media platforms. Advertisers on these platforms aim to persuade voters by sending messages tailored to them based on their own data: political microtargeting (PMT). A considerable problem with PMT is that users are often unaware that they are being targeted, while current transparency advances do not seem to suffice in informing users. However, increasing transparency may have consequences on users’ privacy perceptions. Thus, the current work investigates whether disclosures, as a measure to increase transparency, increase users’ recognition of a microtargeted ad, and subsequently what this means for their perceived benefits, privacy concerns, and their likelihood of engaging in privacy protection behavior, based on the privacy calculus. In a preregistered online one-factorial between-subjects experiment (N = 450) we exposed participants to either an Instagram post containing a currently used disclosure or a more salient disclosure. Our results show that exposure to this disclosure increases recognition of the ad being microtargeted, and that this relates to perceived benefits but not privacy concerns. However, the results show that users’ privacy concerns are related to their increased privacy protection behavior. Finally, we found that over four-fifths of our participants who were exposed to the more salient disclosure recalled it correctly.

Research on Privacy Protection Willingness of New Media Platform Users Based on Theory of Planned Behavior

In todays digital age, new media platforms have become an important channel for people to obtain information and entertainment. However, what followed was peoples growing concerns about personal privacy security. This study takes all adults who use new media platforms as the research object, explores various factors that affect the willingness to protect privacy, and provides in-depth and practical suggestions for protecting personal privacy. We used the theory of planned behavior, incorporating factors such as age and privacy concerns. Through questionnaire survey, a large amount of data was collected and analyzed using SPSS26. The results showed that although age was not significantly correlated with privacy protection willingness, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and privacy concerns were significantly positively correlated with privacy protection willingness. From the research results and discussion, it can be seen that individual attitudes towards privacy protection and social pressure are important factors that determine the willingness to protect privacy. At the same time, individuals perceived behavioral control and privacy concerns will also affect their privacy protection behavior. To sum up, this study deeply analyzes the privacy protection willingness of adults on new media platforms, and provides guidance and suggestions for privacy protection behaviors in the digital society. This has certain significance for protecting personal privacy and promoting the sustainable development of the digital society.

Predicting individuals’ privacy protection and self-tracking behaviors in the context of smart health

The implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies faces social challenges, such as privacy and surveillance, in our so-called ‘sensor society.’ This study applies a unique theoretical framework of surveillance culture, consisting of the surveillance imaginary and surveillance practices, to comprehensively capture individual perceptions and behaviors related to privacy and surveillance in the context of smart health. We also conducted online surveys to examine the cross-national differences between South Korea and the US. Our results show that institutional trust and perceived comfort levels significantly predict individuals’ self-tracking behavior in both the US and Korean samples. Privacy concerns are significantly associated with individuals’ privacy protection behaviors for both samples. The cross-national differences between the US and South Korea are found to be statistically significant. A post-hoc analysis reveals that most differences are attributed to demographic and personal characteristics as predictors of the surveillance imaginary and surveillance practices.

Is knowledge power? Testing whether knowledge affects chilling effects and privacy-protective behaviors using browser histories

This study examines whether providing users with declarative and procedural privacy knowledge positively affects behaviors to safeguard their privacy. Two forms of coping behaviors were in focus: Measures that reduce data collection by technological means (privacy-protective behaviors) and self-restraint in the use of online services (chilling effect-related behaviors). We hypothesized that a combination of declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge as opposed to declarative knowledge alone increases privacy-protective behaviors while being less likely to induce chilling effect-related behaviors. Data were obtained using an experimental study design combined with browser histories. Individuals were exposed to video treatments providing them with a) declarative knowledge or b) a combination of declarative and procedural knowledge, while the control group received no treatment. The study attracted a total of N = 500 participants for self-report data and N = 252 participants with data donations from a student sample in Austria. The findings indicate that both knowledge treatments increased recipients' privacy concerns. Furthermore, the declarative and procedural knowledge treatment increased participants’ self-efficacy. However, increasing knowledge did not translate into more pronounced privacy behaviors. Tentative evidence suggests that privacy fatigue might play a particularly important role in explaining these null findings.

Are digital natives overconfident in their privacy literacy? Discrepancy between self-assessed and actual privacy literacy, and their impacts on privacy protection behavior.

Privacy literacy is recognized as a crucial skill for safeguarding personal privacy online. However, self-assessed privacy literacy often diverges from actual literacy, revealing the presence of cognitive biases. The protection motivation theory (PMT) is widely used to explain privacy protection behavior, positing that whether individuals take defensive measures depends on their cognitive evaluation of threats and coping capabilities. However, the role of cognitive biases in this process has been understudied in previous research. This study focuses on Chinese digital natives and examines the differential impacts of subjective and objective privacy literacy on privacy protection behavior, as well as the role of cognitive biases in privacy decision-making. The results show that there is no significant correlation between subjective and objective privacy literacy, and a bias exists. When privacy concern is used as a mediating variable, there are significant differences in the paths through which subjective and objective privacy literacy influence privacy protection behavior. Furthermore, privacy literacy overconfidence moderates the relationship between privacy concern and privacy protection behavior. The findings confirm the influence of cognitive biases in privacy behavior decision-making and extend the PMT. This study also calls for the government to enhance privacy literacy training for digital natives to improve their privacy protection capabilities.

Research on Residents' Willingness to Protect Privacy in the Context of the Personal Information Protection Law: A Survey Based on Foshan Residents' Data

The Personal Information Protection Law, as the frst law on personal information protection in China, hits the people’s most concerned, realistic and direct privacy and information security issues, and plays an extremely important role in promoting the development of the digital economy, the legalization of socialism with Chinese characteristics and social public security, and marks a new historical development stage in the protection of personal information in China. However, the awareness of privacy protection and privacy protection behavior of the public in personal information privacy protection is weak. Based on the literature review and in-depth understanding of current legal regulations, this study integrates the relevant literature and theoretical knowledge of the Personal Protection Law to construct a conceptual model of “privacy information protection willingness—privacy information protection behavior”. Taking the residents of Foshan City as an example, this paper conducts a questionnaire survey on their attitudes toward the Personal Protection Law, analyzes the factors infuencing their willingness to protect their privacy and their behaviors, and explores the mechanisms of their infuencing variables, to provide advice and suggestions for promoting the protection of privacy information and building a security barrier for the high-quality development of public information security.

소비자의 정보 프라이버시 염려와 보호행동

With the emphasis on balancing the use of personal information with privacy protection, there has been a lot of academic discussion on the factors that influence privacy concerns and the consequences of those concerns. However, there are relatively few studies that examine the impact of various individual factors of customer on privacy concerns and behaviors from the perspective of consumers, who are the subjects of personal information. Furthermore, the role of privacy knowledge level has not been sufficiently discussed. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationship between information privacy concerns and protective behavior based on the APCO model and the theory of motivation to protect. To this end, we examined differences in information privacy concerns and privacy protection behaviors according to personal factors such as gender, age, legal knowledge of privacy laws, education, and income, and tested whether there is a moderating effect between concerns and protection behaviors. The results showed that information privacy concerns were higher among women and those with high legal knowledge, and privacy protection behaviors were higher among those with low age, high legal knowledge, high education, and high income. We also found that legal knowledge had a moderating effect that strengthened the relationship between concerns and protection behaviors. In other words, research results shows that the interaction between personal factors plays an important role in consumers' privacy-protective behavior. This study contributes to the understanding of existing findings on the impact of personal factors on privacy concerns and protective behaviors and extends existing theories.

How Can We Increase Privacy Protection Behavior? A Longitudinal Experiment Testing Three Intervention Strategies

This study investigates which intervention strategies most effectively increase privacy protection behavior. Drawing upon Protection Motivation Theory, we examine the short- and long-term effects of (combinations) of three strategies: (1) increasing awareness of the threat to privacy, (2) training effective privacy protection behavior, and (3) addressing and combating privacy fatigue. We conducted a longitudinal experiment in the Netherlands with three waves ( Nwave1 = 1,000, 2 weeks later Nwave2 = 799, 2 months later Nwave3 = 465) and eight between subjects conditions (no strategy and all possible combinations of the strategies). Results show that the training strategy increased self-efficacy and response efficacy, immediately increased all privacy protection behaviors, and positively impacted tracking blocking behavior in the short- and long-term, actual cookie rejection in the short-term (2 weeks later), and deletion behavior in the long-term (2 months later). The threat and fatigue strategies did not have their anticipated effects, but the threat strategy did immediately increase tracking blocking intentions, and the fatigue strategy had a positive, short-term effect on cookie rejection behavior.

Perceived customer care and privacy protection behavior: The mediating role of trust in self-disclosure

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a chance and a boost for those retailers that develop their online profile. This new context can raise privacy issues on the consumer side. For this reason, here we explore the determinants of online self-disclosure, and its relationship with customer care. We collected the data through an online survey (n = 426) and tested a variance-based structural equations model. The findings unriddle the role of perceived customer care as an antecedent of both perceived control and trust, the latter emerging as a key mediator of the impact of both perceived customer care and privacy concern on self-disclosure. Moreover, in line with previous studies, perceived control was found to be positively related with trust, and negatively with privacy concerns. According to the findings, we draw several managerial implications and suggest future research paths.