Full Length ArticleOnline privacy concerns: A broad approach to understanding the concerns of different groups for different uses
Introduction
In digital surroundings, personal information has become hard currency. While using different digital applications, we leave traces, which are collected, compiled, and used for purposes – sometimes unknown to us. Questions regarding personal privacy and security settings are becoming increasingly relevant, and the discussion continuously arises regarding which digital tracks we leave. Expressions of concern about the violation of information privacy have proliferated (Preibusch, 2013, Turow and Hennessy, 2007).
Every communication leaves a trace, and information about visited websites can be reported back by cookie software and transformed into data (Woo, 2006). Some data collectors are not easily identified and cannot be dealt with. Online users are also frequently faced with no choice but to send some kind of information if they want access to sites or services (Woo, 2006), building a tension between users’ wish to communicate and their understanding of personal privacy on the interactive web. In digital contexts, information gathering is sometimes combined with some kind of gratification for the user (and information provider). Such gratification could consist of gifts or access to exclusive content. To many people, these kinds of benefits can be of great value and thus lead to their reluctantly disregarding security settings or attention to digital footprints, willingly giving up their privacy for consumer convenience and other benefits. This privacy paradox is often a personal decision based on a cost-benefit analysis (Park et al., 2012, Preibusch, 2013, Trepte and Reinecke, 2011, Woo, 2006, Youn, 2009).
The physical reality of danger around certain areas of use in online settings might be widely separated from how people understand a potential danger. Both perspectives contribute to determining the centrality of risk in society (Turow & Hennessy, 2007). Furthermore, a country’s regulatory approach to information privacy is the result of its cultural values and of its citizens’ privacy concerns (Milberg, Smith, & Burke, 2000). Rules are often social and normative rather than legal, and they are negotiated among users in networks or on a broader societal level (Lewis, Kaufman, & Christakis, 2008). Society seems to be facing increased demands regarding protection and recommendations for user’s privacy (Starke-Meyerring, Burk, & Gurak, 2004), and online privacy has tended to become more of a societal concern than an issue for each private user (Baek et al., 2014, Marwick and boyd, 2014).
Intrusive use and manipulation of personal information not only affect people’s willingness to disclose truthful information (Yang, 2013), but also they could have important implications for political regulation and civic society (Fuchs, Boersma, Albrechtslund, & Sandoval, 2011). Questions about privacy and security in digital media use are also an important part of the media and information literacy as emphasized by UNESCO as basic conditions for active citizenship and democracy (Wilson, Grizzle, Tuazon, Akyempong, & Cheung, 2011).
Previous researchers have identified some central dimensions of privacy: collection of personal information, unauthorized secondary usage, external unauthorized secondary usage, errors in personal information, and improper access (Milberg et al., 2000, Okazaki et al., 2009, Smith et al., 1996, Wirtz et al., 2007, Woo, 2006). This study deals with concerns on a more general level and with Smith et al.’s (1996) terminology: unauthorized use of personal information. The paper aims at describing the digital contexts in which people perceive concern and at explaining their anxiety.
Section snippets
Contexts of user privacy
Misuse of personal information and privacy concerns are found within several areas of online use, and perceptions of intrusive use are likely to differ depending of the character of the use. This study includes four different areas of character: e-mailing, searching for information, using social network sites, and making purchases with debit cards.
Previous research provides different understanding of concern for these areas. An American study from 2013 reveals, for instance, that handling
Perspectives on users’ concern for privacy online
Several dimensions of factors have implications on how people perceive misuse of personal information in digital environments. The following have proven to affect overall privacy concerns: personal experiences of internet use and areas of the internet (Fogel and Nehmad, 2009, Jensen et al., 2005, Lee, 2009, Lewis et al., 2008, Miyazaki and Fernandez, 2001, Paine et al., 2007, Park et al., 2012, Trepte et al., 2013, Yao et al., 2007, Youn, 2009); socio-demographic factors (Blank et al., 2014,
Data and methods
Privacy concerns in digital media were captured in a quantitative mail survey with a representative sample of the Swedish population aged between sixteen and eighty-five years old. The study is based on data collected in the Swedish national SOM survey (Society, Opinion, Media) conducted in the autumn and winter of 2013. The SOM survey has been conducted as an annual national mail survey since 1986. The relevant part of the 2013 survey was administered to 3400 persons, with a net response rate
Results
The conducted study was aimed at finding out which areas of digital use raise more and which less concern for privacy issues and which individual factors can help in understanding the anxiety. The first part of the results chapter deals with the question of privacy concerns when using e-mail, information searches, social network sites, and online debit card payments. The second part analyses how privacy concerns are experienced in different groups based on demographical variables, internet
Conclusions and discussion
A general impression from the conducted analysis is that privacy concerns in digital surroundings are more strongly related to applications that are more personal, like social media and debit cards, whereas applications more general of character produce less anxiety. Handling e-mail and searching for information do not bother the users to the same extent. A reasonable explanation for this finding could be that the latter applications or usage areas have been domesticated to a large extent and
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