SIG SEC - Information Security and Privacy
Paper Type
ERF
Paper Number
1724
Description
The widespread adoption of digital technologies has dramatically increased the concerns over invasion of consumers’ information privacy. Several studies show that despite the increasing concerns over invasion of privacy, consumers seldom engage in activities to protect their personal information. Why does privacy remain an elusive concept in practice even though it is widely discussed? This article adopts a resource dependency perspective (Emerson 1962; Pfeffer and Salancik 1978) to explain the reasons of the discrepancy between consumers’ privacy attitudes and their actual behaviors. In particular, this paper explains the power-dependency asymmetry in the consumer-firm relationship and explores the mechanisms that foster consumers’ dependency on the firm. The dependency asymmetry in a consumer-firm relationship is proposed to enhance the consumers’ willingness to self-disclose personal information or allow the firm to intrude into their privacy through new invasive technologies.
Recommended Citation
Bulgurcu, Burcu, "A Theoretical Discussion of Consumers’ Willingness to Disclose Personal Information Despite Privacy Concerns" (2022). AMCIS 2022 Proceedings. 1.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2022/sig_sec/sig_sec/1
A Theoretical Discussion of Consumers’ Willingness to Disclose Personal Information Despite Privacy Concerns
The widespread adoption of digital technologies has dramatically increased the concerns over invasion of consumers’ information privacy. Several studies show that despite the increasing concerns over invasion of privacy, consumers seldom engage in activities to protect their personal information. Why does privacy remain an elusive concept in practice even though it is widely discussed? This article adopts a resource dependency perspective (Emerson 1962; Pfeffer and Salancik 1978) to explain the reasons of the discrepancy between consumers’ privacy attitudes and their actual behaviors. In particular, this paper explains the power-dependency asymmetry in the consumer-firm relationship and explores the mechanisms that foster consumers’ dependency on the firm. The dependency asymmetry in a consumer-firm relationship is proposed to enhance the consumers’ willingness to self-disclose personal information or allow the firm to intrude into their privacy through new invasive technologies.
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