The Role of Privacy Within the Realm of Healthcare Wearables\u27 Acceptance and Use

The flexibility and vitality of the Internet along with technological innovation have fueled an industry focused on the design of portable devices capable of supporting personal activities and wellbeing. These compute devices, known as wearables, are unique from other computers in that they are portable, specific in function, and worn or carried by the user. While there are definite benefits attributable to wearables, there are also notable risks, especially in the realm of security where personal information and/or activities are often accessible to third parties. In addition, protecting one’s private information is regularly an afterthought and thus lacking in maturity. These concerns are amplified in the realm of healthcare wearable devices. Users must weigh the benefits with the risks. This is known as the privacy calculus. Often, users will opt for the wearable device despite the heightened concern that their information may or will be disclosed. This is known as the privacy paradox. While past research focused on specific wearable technologies, such as activity trackers and smartphones, the paradox of disclosure despite concern for privacy has not been the primary focus, particularly in the realm of the manifestation of the paradox when it comes to the acceptance and use of healthcare wearable devices. Accordingly, the objective of the present research was to propose and evaluate a research model specifically oriented towards the role of privacy in the realm of healthcare-related wearables’ acceptance and use. The presented model is composed of sixteen constructs informed from multiple theories including multiple technology acceptance theories, the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), the Health Belief Model (HBM), and multiple privacy calculus theories. Using a survey-oriented approach to collect data, relationships among privacy, health, and acceptance constructs were examined using SmartPLS with intentions to validate the posited hypotheses and determine the influence of the various independent variables on the intention to disclose and the intention to adopt healthcare-wearables. Of particular interest is the posited moderating effects of perceived health status on intention to disclose personal information. The research endeavor confirmed significant evidence of the cost/benefit decision process, aka the privacy calculus, that takes place when deciding whether or not to disclose personal information in the healthcare wearables space. Perceived privacy risk was negatively correlated to intention to disclose while hedonic motivation and performance expectancy were positively correlated to intention to disclose. Furthermore, significant evidence was discovered pertaining to the privacy paradox via the moderating role that perceived health status plays regarding the relationships between the constructs of perceived privacy risk and intention to disclose and hedonic motivation and intention to disclose. Intention to disclose was also found to have a significant positive influence on intention to adopt. Contributions include understanding and generalization in the healthcare wearables adoption knowledge space with a particular emphasis on the role of privacy, as well as practical implications for wearable manufacturers and users

An Alternative to the One-Size-Fits-All Approach to ISA Training: A Design Science Approach to ISA Regarding the Adaption to Student Vulnerability Based on Knowledge and Behavior

Any connection to the university’s network is a conduit that has the potential of being exploited by an attacker, resulting in the possibility of substantial harm to the infrastructure, to the university, and to the student body of whom the university serves. While organizations rightfully “baton down the hatches” by building firewalls, creating proxies, and applying important updates, the most significant vulnerability, that of the student, continues to be an issue due to lack of knowledge, insufficient motivation, and inadequate or misguided training. Utilizing the Design Science Research (DSR) methodology, this research effort seeks to address the latter concern of training by seeking to design a methodology that will sufficiently support the automatic adaptation of security training, which will be based on the assessment of student vulnerability determined by the student’s overall Information Security Awareness (ISA) knowledge and computer security behavior

The Role of the Privacy Calculus and the Privacy Paradox in the Acceptance of Wearables for Health and Wellbeing

The Internet along with innovations in technology have inspired an industry focused on designing portable devices, known as wearables that can track users’ personal activities and wellbeing. While such technologies have many benefits, they also have risks (especially regarding information privacy and security). These concerns become even more pronounced with healthcare-related wearables. Consequently, users must consider the benefits given the risks (privacy calculus); however, users often opt for wearables despite their disclosure concerns (privacy paradox). In this study, we investigate the multidimensional role that privacy (and, in particular, the privacy calculus and the privacy paradox) plays in consumers’ intention to disclose their personal information, whether health status has a moderating effect on the relationship, and the influence of privacy on acceptance. To do so, we evaluated a research model that explicitly focused on the privacy calculus and the privacy paradox in the healthcare wearables acceptance domain. We used a survey-oriented approach to collect data from 225 users and examined relationships among privacy, health, and acceptance constructs. In that regard, our research confirmed significant evidence of the influence of the privacy calculus on disclosure and acceptance as well as evidence of the privacy paradox when considering health status. We found that consumers felt less inclined to disclose their personal information when the risks to privacy outweighed benefits; however, health status moderated this behavior such that people with worse health tipped the scale towards disclosure. This study expands our previous knowledge about healthcare wearables’ privacy/acceptance paradigm and, thus, the influences that affect healthcare wearables’ acceptance in the privacy context

A Method for Gamifying Online Discussions

Gamification has been shown to improve learning in the online classroom. Leaderboards and digital badges, for example, have been successfully used as learning analytic tools which allow students to visualize learning progress. However, the authors found very little research examining the effect of gamification of online discussion boards. Thus, this study addressed the gap via a learning analytic approach designed to develop a gamified, online discussion board using the theoretical foundations of flow theory. The gameboard was evaluated in two sections of an online, graduate business information systems course which were identical with the exception that one course used a gamified discussion board. Overall, the result of a gamified discussion board was an improvement in the intrinsic motivation of the students to engage with the discussion. Further, our findings yield important theoretical and practical implications on how to successfully implement learning analytics via a gamified discussion board

The Role of Privacy within the Realm of Healthcare Wearables\u27 Acceptance and Use

While there are definite benefits attributed to wearables, there are also notable risks, especially in the realm of security where personal information and/or activities are often accessible to third parties. Users weigh the benefits with the risks (Privacy Calculus) and often opt for the wearable device despite concern that their information may or will be disclosed (Privacy Paradox). While past research has focused on specific technologies, the paradox of disclosure despite concern for privacy has not been the primary focus, particularly regarding the manifestation of the paradox specific to the acceptance and use of healthcare wearables. The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of privacy regarding healthcare wearables’ acceptance and use. In that regard, a model integrating privacy with acceptance and use is proposed and tested, resulting in evidence of support for the presence of the privacy calculus and paradox

Hydration of mechanically activated granulated blast furnace slag

Ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) is known to possess latent hydraulic activity, i.e., it shows cementitious properties when in contact with water over a long period of time. Results are presented in this article to show that, in sharp contrast to published literature on the hydration of neat GGBFS, the complete hydration of slag is possible in a short time (days), even without a chemical activator. This is achieved if the slag used for hydration is mechanically activated, using an attrition mill. The nature of the hydration product of the mechanically activated slag depends not only on the initial specific surface area (SSA) of the slag but also on the surface activation, as manifested by the change in the zeta potential (ξ) of the slag during the milling process. Depending upon the SSA and the ξ, the hydration product changed from nonreacted slag with high porosity (slag SSA −29 mV) to hydrated slag with a compact structure (SSA=0.3 to 0.4 m2/g, ξ=−29 to −31 mV), and, finally, to fully hydrated slag with high porosity (SSA>0.4 m2/g, ξ ∼ 26 mV). Unlike the poorly crystalline hydration product formed by the nonactivated slag, even after prolonged hydration for years, the hydration product of mechanically activated slag was crystalline in nature. The crystallinity of the product improved as the duration of the mechanical activation increased. The calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H) phases present in the slag hydration product, characterized by a Ca/Si ratio of 0.7 to 1.5, were similar to those found for the hydraulic cement binder, except for the presence of Mg and Al as impurities. In addition, the presence of a di-calcium-silicate-hydrate phase (α-C2SH), which normally forms under hydrothermal conditions, and a Ca-deficient and Si-Al-rich phase (average Ca/Si mole ratio < 0.1 and Si/Al ∼ 3) is indicated, especially in the hydration product of slag that was activated for a longer time