Couldn't or Wouldn't? The Influence of Privacy Concerns and Self-Efficacy in Privacy Management on Privacy Protection

Abstract

Sampling 515 college students, this study investigates how privacy protection, including profile visibility, selfdisclosure, and friending, are influenced by privacy concerns and efficacy regarding one's own ability to manage privacy settings, a factor that researchers have yet to give a great deal of attention to in the context of social networking sites (SNSs). The results of this study indicate an inconsistency in adopting strategies to protect privacy, a disconnect from limiting profile visibility and friending to self-disclosure. More specifically, privacy concerns lead SNS users to limit their profile visibility and discourage them from expanding their network. However, they do not constrain self-disclosure. Similarly, while self-efficacy in privacy management encourages SNS users to limit their profile visibility, it facilitates self-disclosure. This suggests that if users are limiting their profile visibility and constraining their friending behaviors, it does not necessarily mean they will reduce self-disclosure on SNSs because these behaviors are predicted by different factors. In addition, the study finds an interaction effect between privacy concerns and self-efficacy in privacy management on friending. It points to the potential problem of increased risk-taking behaviors resulting from high self-efficacy in privacy management and low privacy concerns.

Personalization–privacy paradox and consumer conflict with the use of location-based mobile commerce

“…Self-efficacy in the context of privacy is the perception of an individual's ability to protect personal privacy (Chen & Chen, 2015). Some previous studies reported that higher self-efficacy lowers privacy risks, consistent with the privacy calculus model, and leads to greater willingness to provide personal information for the use of personalized services (Wasko & Faraj, 2005).…”

Factors Affecting Students’ Privacy Paradox and Privacy Protection Behavior

“…their knowledge of the tools available to protect their online information and experience (Hoffman et al 1999;Park 2013), and online privacy self-efficacy (OPSE), i.e. users' belief in their ability to protect their identity when surfing the Internet (Chen & Chen 2015). The studies suggest that higher OPL leads to lower levels of self-disclosure, while lower OPSE has the opposite effect.…”

Assessing Drinking Norms from Attending Drinking Events and Social Network Site Use

“…Although there have always been concerns about the accuracy of online information, drinking information exchanged on SNSs may be credible for several reasons. First, empirical research shows that college students still share a great deal of personal information on these sites, despite their acknowledgement of privacy concerns [27][28]. Rather than avoiding self-disclosure on SNSs, they develop multiple strategies to balance privacy concerns and their need for self-disclosure, for instance, restricting the access of certain groups to some information [29] and matching the channel of self-disclosure with the sensitivity of the topic [30].…”