Privacy and Intimacy Concerns in Digital Marketing: Literature Review

Introduction

We notice an increase in scholars’ interest in social networks, privacy, intimacy and how users manage their privacy boundaries (Baruh et al., 2017). Recent studies show the growing importance of digital technology for marketing; some also highlight the need for research on how social networks can impact organisational legitimacy acquisition processes, as now individuals may be capable of influencing and contributing to the social construction of organisational legitimacy by shaping the public discourse (Grewal et al., 2020). Plangger et al. (2022) highlight the need to study how privacy is becoming increasingly important for consumers in a digital context, becoming a clear need for brands to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace (Bleier et al., 2020). This chapter analyses how social network users' perceptions of privacy and intimacy affect organisational legitimacy. Legitimacy is a discursive construction created in the public sphere by many individuals; for that reason, it is especially relevant to study it at a networked level (Etter et al., 2018; Illia et al., 2023). Finding a balance between corporate profit and consumer privacy is one of the biggest challenges advertisers face today due to growing privacy concerns over users (Yi et al., 2023). This challenge is reflected in the steady increase in the number of articles on privacy and the growth of the topic (Boerman & Smit, 2022).

Additionally, relevant scholars’ findings have highlighted more than once that privacy is one of the top issues for internet users as they are becoming more and more security-conscious consumers (Acquisti et al., 2016). Consumers' emission of digital signs depends on the intention of adopting and using technologies like the internet or social networks, so it is essential to understand why they use them. For example, some consumers may adopt them for purely practical reasons, while others may do so for hedonic and social reasons such as identity construction or interaction (Schweidel et al., 2022).

This book chapter aims to bring forward the growing concern of researchers and managers in different industries about privacy and the invasion of privacy in the networked environment enabled by Web 2.0 and social networks. In parallel, it aims to provide insights into how companies can make decisions and activate concrete tactics to alleviate their customers' or potential customers' perceived privacy or intimacy violations to obtain better relationships that translate into higher profits. In doing so, we aim to provide a theoretical basis with the relevant scientific literature to give rise to new research that considers the variables of privacy and privacy when assessing their role in the proper functioning of digital marketing.

From these proposals and the initial literature review, we propose the following research questions:

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  RQ1: What are the specific challenges marketers face regarding users' perception of privacy and intimacy on social networks?

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  RQ2: How does the redefinition of privacy and intimacy boundaries impact the behaviours of social network users?

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  RQ3: Are there any potential solutions or strategies for marketers to address these challenges and maintain users' trust and engagement on social networks to have more revenue?

Literature Review Methodology

As the main objective of this research is to gain an in-depth understanding of the topics mentioned earlier, the in-depth review of different sources has given a comprehensive understanding of the issues and subjects we aim to trait and resolve, focusing on giving a managerial approach to our research.