Are Perceptions About Government and Social Media Providers Related to Protection Motivation Online?

Abstract

This study aims to explore the relations between perceptions about government and social media providers, and protection motivation of social media users. A survey was conducted among students at a public university in Slovenia (N=276). The results of PLS-SEM analysis indicate that fear of government intrusions is associated with both perceived threat and privacy concern. This establishes the perceptions about government as important factors related to both privacy concern and threat appraisal according to protection motivation literature. Non-significant relations between trust in internet service provider, and perceived threat and privacy concern indicate that social media users may not consider them as relevant cyberspace actors capable of threatening their privacy on social media. The results also suggest that trust in social media providers moderates the association between privacy concern and protection motivation. Privacy concern appears to be related to protection motivation only if trust in social media provider is high.

Research on the Disclosure of Personal Privacy by Social Media Users in the Era of Big Data and Mobile Internet, and Countermeasures

“…Concerning privacy protection, significant emphasis has been placed on safeguarding user location data. Meanwhile, a number of studies have delved into the extent to which users utilize privacy settings, revealing that a significant portion neglects to fully exploit the privacy tools available on these platforms [58].…”