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Top1. Introduction
With the rapid diffusion of smartphones, the mobile channel has morphed into an ultimate marketing vehicle (Varnali and Toker, 2010). Approximately 500 million smartphone users in India share immense digital data through apps with unidentified parties (Ians, 2020). Unlike the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which mandates service providers to inform users about the purpose and terms of personal data processing (Betzing et al., 2020), in an emerging economy like India, there is no legal obligation on service providers for personal data processing. Mobile users ignore the fact that smartphones are considered ‘portable personal spy’, and the information collected through phones can be easily used in profiling them, and with always-on data transmission, there is a strong potential for privacy intrusion (FTC, 2009). On one end of the spectrum, individuals are anxious about the misuse of their data, but on the other end, they share personal data by clicking onto terms and conditions with the blink of an eye. In the quest for more convenience, or pursuit of personalization, individuals end up disclosing data, however, they articulate high privacy concerns (Acquisti, 2012). This has been documented as a ‘privacy paradox’ which is the essence of this research work.
Privacy paradox refers to the discrepancy between a consumer’s stated privacy risk beliefs and their actual behaviors (Norberg, et al, 2007). Users express the need for transparency and information control, but the desire to own a specific app seems to offset its potential risks. Mobile users accept the ‘all-or-nothing’ policy by app stores just to download a particular app, whereby they voluntarily give permissions to apps for collecting their personal information (Betzing, 2020). Sometimes rationally and sometimes obliviously people behave paradoxically to their privacy concerns and behavior. Thus, finding the reasons for this paradox amongst the mobile users is significant to help the users make more accurate decisions which is beneficial for them to continue using mobile phones securely. Findings these reasons will add to the new facets of understanding the word-deed gap.
There have been numerous studies that have tried to propose theoretical explanations for the privacy paradox nevertheless no comprehensive explanation has been found so far (Kokolakis, 2017). Many studies have quantitatively tried to map the relation between privacy attitude (often operationalized as the assessment of privacy concerns or perceived risk,) and intention to disclose. In this research, we try to understand human behavior more precisely by digging into actual disclosure behavior.
Some social scientists have given rational explanations for this paradox, but some have debunked the assumptions that individuals make rational disclosure online (Kokolakis, 2017). Users are not always capable of making rational disclosure decisions, due to cognitive limitations. However irrational reasons in terms of cognitive and behavioral biases to privacy disclosure decisions have been conjectural. Thus, to understand this phenomenon and find out the reasons (rational and irrational explanations) of the privacy paradox, an exploratory investigation was most appropriate. Qualitative research would help in gaining new insights into a phenomenon as it is based on interpretation and understanding of opinions and motivations of the respondent. With the help of in-depth interviews, the interviewer could probe hidden issues, personal opinions, beliefs, and values more profoundly. Thus, the objective of this research is to find out the reasons which govern the explanation for the existence of the privacy paradox among smartphone users.