The increasing use of the Internet and the development of more sophisticated data-mining and surveillance techniques have led to growing levels of public concern about online privacy. This chapter reviews the intellectual history and current knowledge of online privacy risks. It discusses some foundational studies of privacy research. This is followed by literature reviews of empirical studies of online privacy risks. Specifically, this chapter focuses on perceptual and behavioral responses to online privacy risks, such as online privacy concerns, risk perception and optimistic bias, and self-protection behavior. It concludes with implications and directions for future research.
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Westin (1967) laid out a framework for analyzing privacy in modern society by examining the nature and functions of privacy, and its social role in democratic society. Subsequent research has explored the dimensionality of privacy constructs (Burgoon, 1982; Parrot et al., 1989) as well as legal and ethical issues related to privacy (DeCew, 1997; Trukington & Allen, 1999). With the rapid diffusion of online media, scholars have extended the scope of privacy research by examining perceptions and behaviors pertaining to online privacy risks (Cranor, Reagle, & Ackerman, 1999) and their impact on online behaviors (Milne, Rohm, & Bahl, 2004). Previous studies have explored responses to online privacy risks by (a) specifying the multidimensionality of privacy concerns or behaviors (Malhotra, Kim, & Agarwal, 2004; Smith, Milberg, & Burke, 1996), (b) identifying the antecedent factors that affect Internet users’ perceptual and behavioral responses to online privacy risks (Cho, Rivera, & Lim, 2009; Yao et al., 2007), and (c) examining the impact of privacy concerns on online behaviors (Milne, Rohm, & Bahl, 2004; Sheehan & Moy, 1999).