Measuring Privacy Concerns with Government Surveillance and Right-to-be-Forgotten in Nomological Net of Trust and Willingness-to-Share

In the post Snowden revelations era, concerns related to government surveillance and oversight have come to the forefront. The ability of the Internet to remember “everything” (or forget anything) also raises a privacy concern associated with the “right to be forgotten”. Hence, in this paper, we propose and examine privacy concerns by extending the Hong and Thong’s (2013) model with the addition of two dimensions: right to be forgotten as well as government surveillance and oversight. We tested two different measurement models using privacy concerns as a second-order and a third-order construct within a nomological net that includes trusting beliefs and willingness-to-share information for monetary gains, personalization, and national security. Data were collected from MTurk and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings provide support for the addition of the proposed dimensions

Individual trust and the internet

The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies and associated services heralded a second generation of the Internet emphasising collaboration and sharing amongst users. This resulted in a seismic shift in the relationship between individual consumers and firms but also between individual consumers and the Internet as a system. Consumers, not firms, became an emerging locus of value production and through the ability to publish and connect with known and unknown others, an emerging locus of power (Berthon, Pitt, Plangger, & Shapiro, 2012). Powered by broadband telecommunications and device connectivity, the intensity of these changes was further deepened by being freed from the desktop to the mobile web. We are more connected now than ever before. The high levels of societal interconnectedness encouraged by the internet have made trust an even more vital ingredient in today’s society (Hardin, 2006). The more recent development of Web 3.0 technology emphasises ubiquitous connectivity and a machine-facilitated understanding of information that may once more change the locus of activity, value production and control. In order to keep pace with the issues of contemporary society, trust researchers must consider the how trust relationships and perceptions operate and are influenced by the online environment. This chapter will discuss how traditional trust concepts translate to the online context and will examine empirical literature on online trust at three different levels. Interpersonal trust between individuals using the internet as a medium for communication is particularly relevant in a world where personal and professional relationships are increasingly mediated by technology. We will also discuss the role of the internet in relationships between individuals and organisations with particular attention to the provision of e-services. Finally, we discuss trust in the system of the internet itself as a distributed connected infrastructure made up of indirect system service providers which are often nameless or in the background. Our focus in the chapter is on individual trust in other individuals, organisations and the system of the internet itself. Trust from the perspective of the organisation may also be of interest to trust scholars. This includes issues relating to organisational trust in individuals, inter-organisational trust, and organisational trust in the system of the Internet itself however these topics are outside of the scope of this chapter (see Perks & Halliday, 2003; Ratnasingam, 2005)

An Analysis of Personal Information Privacy Concerns using Q-Methodology

Information privacy has gained increased attention in recent years. This paper focuses on a particular aspect of privacy, i.e., personal information privacy. In this paper a conceptual framework is developed based Westin’s theory of Personal Information Privacy (PIP). Concourse theory and Q-methodology was used alongside the literature and the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 to develop a Q-sort questionnaire. The resulting 29 statements were then sorted by 12 students (majoring in IS Security). The results indicate that for some, privacy priorities may be stable across contexts, and for others this differs, suggesting that current views of privacy (e.g. Westin’s theory) may need revising for the modern digital age. The Q-sort methodology also identified three types, each representing distinct collective perspectives on personal information privacy. These types are discussed along with implications and suggestions for future research

Social Networking Information Disclosure and Continuance Intention: A Disconnect

This paper tests a privacy calculus model for Facebook users. Privacy calculus means that individuals weigh a complex set of factors—including both costs and benefits—to decide whether to disclose personal information. Because information disclosure is closely related to use for many information technologies (IT), our privacy calculus model proposes that costs and benefits of user privacy will simultaneously influence users’ information disclosure and usage continuance intention. Based on past research, our model includes as ‘costs’ privacy concern and information sensitivity, while it includes as ‘benefits’ perceived usefulness, enjoyment, and trust. In a sample of business college students’ use of a social networking website, we find that the privacy calculus model is not well-supported. The benefits do not positively affect information disclosure; only the two cost factors, privacy concern and information sensitivity, predict it. Thus, our findings do not support the privacy calculus model theory that users will weigh costs against benefits in determining whether to disclose information on a social networking website. We also find two benefit factors, usefulness and enjoyment, are the sole predictors of Facebook usage continuance intention. That is, information sensitivity, trust, and privacy concern do not predict continuance. Overall, the study finds that one set of factors influence information disclosure while a separate set of factors influence continuance intention. That is, the predictors of continuance intention are completely different from the predictors of information disclosure. This means, surprisingly, that these users display a clear disconnect between their reasons to disclose information on Facebook and their reasons to continue using Facebook

Police surveillance of cell phone location data: Supreme Court versus public opinion

The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures. As technology evolves, courts must examine Fourth Amendment concerns implicated by the introduction of new and enhanced police surveillance techniques. Recent Supreme Court cases have demonstrated a trend towards reconsidering the mechanical application of traditional Fourth Amendment doctrine to define the scope of constitutional protections for modern technological devices and personal data. The current research examined whether public opinion regarding privacy rights in electronic communications is in accordance with these Supreme Court rulings. Results suggest that cell phone location data is perceived as more private and deserving of protections than other types of location data, but the privacy of other types of information recorded on cell phones is valued even more than location data. These results have implications for the police and courts considering how the Fourth Amendment will apply to smart phone technologies