This is not a new post, dating from 2017, but it is worth listing here because of its increasing relevance in our leaky digital world and consumers’ unending quest for pleasure and benefits.
“Known as the privacy paradox, it is a documented fact that users have a tendency towards privacy-compromising behavior online which eventually results in a dichotomy between privacy attitudes and actual behavior”
“While many users show theoretical interest in their privacy and maintain a positive attitude towards privacy-protection behavior, this rarely translates into actual protective behavior”
“Furthermore, while an intention to limit data disclosure exists, actual disclosure often significantly exceeds intention”“Research into online service providers has shown that concrete privacy decisions and abstract risk awareness are not interchangeable. Privacy decisions do not change in line with modified preferences, which could explain the disparity between stated preferences for privacy and actual behavior”
“Although users are aware of privacy risks on the internet, they tend to share private information in exchange for retail value and personalized services”
“privacy is not yet integrated into the social presentation of a smartphone and hence, will consequently lead to failed privacy awareness. Thus, supporting privacy awareness with suitable tools would allow meaningful decision-making by users and solve the conflicting interests between users and providers”
“To our knowledge, there is not one unilaterally accepted theory used to explain the online behavior of users when it comes to information disclosure, nor is there a consensus on the mental processes users rely upon when deciding whether to disclose information or not.”
Section 1, The Privacy Paradox- The privacy paradox by Susanne Barth and Menno D T de Jong in Telematics and Informatics November 2017
“People’s attitudes toward risks concerning gains may be quite different from their attitudes toward risks concerning losses. For example, when given a choice between getting $1000 with certainty or having a 50% chance of getting $2500 they may well choose the certain $1000 in preference to the uncertain chance of getting $2500 even though the mathematical expectation of the uncertain option is $1250. This is a perfectly reasonable attitude that is described as risk-aversion. But Kahneman and Tversky found that the same people when confronted with a certain loss of $1000 versus a 50% chance of no loss or a $2500 loss do often choose the risky alternative. This is called risk-seeking behavior. This is not necessarily irrational but it is important for analysts to recognize the asymmetry of human choices.”
Kahneman and Tversky’s Prospect Theory by Thayer Watkins of the SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT
“the use of social networking sites is ritualistic and strongly integrated into people’s everyday lives by means of creating social capital and connectedness through a broad network (which would not be possible in an offline context) so that these benefits outweigh privacy concerns and prevent engagement in privacy protection behavior, even in cases of direct privacy violations”
Section 3.2.5, Habit – The privacy paradox by Susanne Barth and Menno D T de Jong in Telematics and Informatics November 2017
“People do accept privacy policies by app developers despite privacy concerns for the mere reason of having access to the app (mobile apps usually act according to an all-or-nothing principle that implies that total acceptance of the privacy policy is inherent to use of the app) and because users are resigned to the fact that they possess little power to change the situation anyway.”
“Although people are abstractly aware of data violation, these rational feelings cannot be translated into actual feelings of fear (Gesellschaft/Society). As a result, the desire of belonging to a social network overrides any fears the consequences of data misuse might provoke”
Section 3.3.1, Value of desired goal outweighs risk assessment – The privacy paradox by Susanne Barth and Menno D T de Jong in Telematics and Informatics November 2017
[at the time of writing] “There are currently no viable solutions designed to span the gap between a user’s intention and behavior. We believe that research into finding a solution to this problem deserves more attention. A movement to user-orientated design is needed in order to empower the user with the ability to make self-determined decisions on matters of privacy protection and online security. Shifting the reference point from ‘not mine’ to ‘mine’ goes along with higher risk perception which leads to the development of psychological ownership. This might elicit a higher valuation of private information, resulting in risk-averse decision-making”
“Privacy awareness tools should empower users to make well-informed decisions with regard to their information disclosure”“In their study on mobile websites, Zhang et al. (2014) concluded that a security warning with regard to the website resulted in increased threat perception as it pertains to private information, negative attitudes towards the service provider and lower tendency for future use.”
Section 4.4. Solutions to the paradoxical behavior of users – The privacy paradox by Susanne Barth and Menno D T de Jong in Telematics and Informatics November 2017
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