Will I or Will I Not? Explaining the Willingness to Disclose Personal Self-Tracking Data to a Health Insurance Company

Users of digital self-tracking devices increasingly benefit from multiple services related to their self-tracking data. Vice versa, new digital as well as “offline” service providers, such as health insurance companies, depend on the users’ willingness to disclose personal data to be able to offer new services. Whereas previous research mostly investigated the willingness to disclose data in the context of social media, e-commerce and smartphone apps, the aim of our research is to analyze the influence of the privacy calculus of personal risks and benefits on the willingness to disclose highly personal and confidential self-tracking data to health insurance companies. To do so, we develop a conceptual model based on the privacy calculus concept and validate it with a sample of 103 respondents in a scenario-based experiment using structural equation modeling. Our results reveal that privacy risks always have a negative impact on the willingness to disclose personal data, while positive effects of privacy benefits are partly depending on the data sensitivity

The Dark Side of Privacy Nudging – An Experimental Study in the Context of a Digital Work Environment

In digital environments, individuals tend to share disproportionally more information than in face-to-face communication. Critically, disclosing personal information can yield risks such as unwanted monitoring or discrimination. Privacy nudging is a promising approach to get users to disclose less personal information. In this work, we tested two nudges corresponding to the issue of personal privacy. A framing nudge conveys an intensive message and a social nudge provides social cues. To empirically test these nudges, we evaluated an experiment with 223 participants. The results indicate that privacy nudges negatively influence information disclosure behavior. The social nudge was perceived as a threat. The framing nudge directly affected negative emotions and the social nudge indirectly. Perceived threat and negative emotions have a significant negative effect on information disclosure intention. With this research, we contribute to the discussion of what drives privacy nudge effectiveness and influences information disclosure behavior in digital work environments

Mobile Cloud-Computing Applications: A Privacy Cost-Benefit Model

The increasing use of mobile devices has been accompanied by the development of mobile cloud-computing applications (MCC apps) that are multi-platform applications sending the users’ data to the cloud. Despite the benefits of MCC apps, they raise privacy concerns because the users’ information is sent to remote locations where users lack direct control. This paper studies how individuals weigh the privacy costs and benefits of disclosing personal information to MCC apps and proposes a model. Analyses of data collected through an online survey with 439 responses provides insights into the predictors of disclosing personal information to MCC apps. The results show that the main inhibitor of disclosing personal information to MCC apps is perceived privacy concerns and the main enablers are perceived usefulness and trust. Moreover, perceived ease of use does not directly affect the disclosing of information to MCC apps. The paper’s theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Examining Users’ Information Disclosure and Audience Support Response Dynamics in Online Health Communities: An Empirical Study

Online healthcare communities (OHCs) facilitate two-way interaction. Examining users’ information disclosure-audience support response dynamics can reveal insights for fostering a supportive environment, community engagement, bond formation, knowledge sharing, and sustained participation in OHCs. We propose a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model of user disclosure and response dynamics in OHCs. Based on the health disclosure decision-making model and daily time series data, we examine the two-way interaction of two dimensions of disclosure efficacy with audience support response acceptance. Findings of the impulse response functions reveal that user information density leads to positive support response acceptance, whereas support response acceptance reduces the information density of a user post over time. Further, higher information efficacy leads to more support response acceptance with long run improved information efficacy. Theoretically, findings extend the disclosure decision-making model in OHCs. Practically, the results provide insights for OHC management to facilitate two-way dynamic users’ interactions

Examining Users’ Information Disclosure and Audience Support Response Dynamics in Online Health Communities: An Empirical Study

Online healthcare communities (OHCs) facilitate two-way interaction. Examining users’ information disclosure-audience support response dynamics can reveal insights for fostering a supportive environment, community engagement, bond formation, knowledge sharing, and sustained participation in OHCs. We propose a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model of user disclosure and response dynamics in OHCs. Based on the health disclosure decision-making model and daily time series data, we examine the two-way interaction of two dimensions of disclosure efficacy with audience support response acceptance. Findings of the impulse response functions reveal that user information density leads to positive support response acceptance, whereas support response acceptance reduces the information density of a user post over time. Further, higher information efficacy leads to more support response acceptance with long run improved information efficacy. Theoretically, findings extend the disclosure decision-making model in OHCs. Practically, the results provide insights for OHC management to facilitate two-way dynamic users’ interactions

Communication privacy management in Social Network Sites: the influence of parental involvement and social on information disclosure

The trend of research in Social Network Sites have focused on privacy disclosure and its effect on motivation and security . Nevertheless, privacy disclosure needs further attention to address adolescence well being and positive behavior. This study seeks to investigate factors related to parental involvement and social influence on privacy disclosure that influence adolescences' well being. Underpinning the framework of Petronio‘s theory of Privacy Management,the study extended the factors of culture, social and motivation to explain the behavior of privacy disclosure. Using Structural Equation modeling analysis, this study estimated the relationships of privacy management influential factors and well being. The implications of the study included the intervention of parents, schools and universities to educate students formally and informally

Examining Consumers’ Selective Information Privacy Disclosure Behaviors in an Organization’s Secure e-Commerce Systems

The study is an examination of the antecedents to the paradoxical changes in the consumers’ intended and actual personal information disclosure behaviors in online transactions or in e-commerce environments. The argument is that a consumer’s information privacy paradox is based on the consumer’s cognitive predisposition. The study adopted the conceptual underpinning inherent in the Privacy Regulation Theory (PRT) and translated them into information privacy context, as the consumer’s desired state of information privacy, information privacy self-interest, information privacy permeability, and information privacy equipoise constructs, to examine the causal relationship among the constructs and between a consumer’s selective personal information disclosure behavior variable. The theoretical model was advanced based on the conceptual framework in PRT and was validated using Structural Equation Modeling. In addition, the study conducted hypothesis testing and factor analysis using Confirmatory Factor Analysis in order to determine the existence of statistical significance and causality. The result indicates that the consumers’ willingness to transact online and disclose their personal information depend largely on the degree of their need signal (self-interest), and to some extent, their awareness and concern of the online merchant’s capacity to collect their personal information, irrespective of their previously declared or undeclared intent to transact and disclose personal information, or despite their desired natural state of information privacy. In other words, the existence of the information privacy paradox stems from the fact that a consumer’s intention to disclose personal information online depends on the person’s natural or desired state of information privacy, whereas the customer’s actual personal information disclosure behavior depends on his or her information privacy equipoise