دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی نقش خستگی حریم خصوصی در رفتار حریم خصوصی آنلاین - الزویر 2018

Abstract

The increasing difficulty in managing one’s online personal data leads to individuals feeling a loss of control. Additionally, repeated consumer data breaches have given people a sense of futility, ultimately making them weary of having to think about online privacy. This phenomenon is called “privacy fatigue.” Although privacy fatigue is prevalent and has been discussed by scholars, there is little empirical research on the phenomenon. This study aimed not only to conceptualize privacy fatigue but also to examine its role in online privacy behavior. Based on literature on burnout, we developed measurement items for privacy fatigue, which has two key dimensions —emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Data analyzed from a survey of 324 Internet users showed that privacy fatigue has a stronger impact on privacy behavior than privacy concerns do, although the latter is widely regarded as the dominant factor in explaining online privacy behavior.

6. Discussion

The primary purpose of this study was to elucidate the concept of online privacy fatigue. For the objective, the study conceptualized privacy fatigue as an individual psychological phenomenon and developed a set of measures to assess it. The developed scale is an instrument that captures the multidimensional characteristics of privacy fatigue, including emotional exhaustion and cynicism. In addition, the study examined the effects of privacy fatigue on coping behaviors, and demonstrated that privacy fatigue is an important factor in understanding users’ information behaviors in online environments. Specifically, the results showed that privacy fatigue had more significant and intense impacts on users’ disclosure intention and users’ disengagement than privacy concern. Such results extend previous discourse on psychological fatigue of users with respect to online privacy by empirically assessing the impact of privacy fatigue on their behaviors.

The findings confirmed that individuals with high levels of privacy concern were more likely to take action to protect their privacy rights. On the other hand, privacy fatigue had a positive impact on disclosure of personal information and disengagement. This result demonstrates that users with more privacy fatigue tend to put less effort into making privacy decisions (Stanton, Theofanos, Prettyman, & Furman, 2016), and that privacy fatigue has a particularly strong effect on disengagement behavior. People with high levels of privacy fatigue are more likely to “do nothing” in response to the misuse of their personal information. On the whole, this study supported the significant role of privacy fatigue in users’ online privacy behaviors.