Privacy, Risk Perception, and Expert Online Behavior: An Exploratory Study of Household End Users

Abstract

Advances in online technologies have raised new concerns about privacy. A sample of expert household end users was surveyed concerning privacy, risk perceptions, and online behavior intentions. A new e-privacy typology consisting of privacy-aware, privacy-suspicious, and privacy-active types was developed from a principal component factor analysis. Results suggest the presence of a privacy hierarchy of effects where awareness leads to suspicion, which subsequently leads to active behavior. An important finding was that privacy-active behavior that was hypothesized to increase the likelihood of online subscription and purchasing was not found to be significant. A further finding was that perceived risk had a strong negative influence on the extent to which respondents participated in online subscription and purchasing. Based on these results, a number of implications for managers and directions for future research are discussed.