Document Type

Article

Abstract

Innovation in information and communication technologies has enabled firms to collect information about individual customers and to use the information to understand their preferences at substantially low costs. Based on this understanding, firms can provide the customers with improved value such as products that fit best with individual customer needs. This ability is further enhanced by the rapid penetration of mobile devices, which are personal in nature. However, the collection and use of private information have caused widespread apprehension by consumers that their privacy is invaded. It has been well established that privacy risk is greater for more sensitive personal information and thus people are likely to refuse to provide sensitive information correctly. The main objective of this study is to explore moderating factors that influence the negative effect of information sensitivity on personal information disclosure. Specifically, this study focuses on two contextual factors in privacy decision, including the relevance of information and the intrinsic value of transaction, and investigates how the factors can change the impacts that information sensitivity has on the disclosure of personal information. A central finding of an online experiment employing two scenarios of personal information disclosure is that disclosure of sensitive information is responsive to the contextual factors in such a way that the negative impact of information sensitivity can be attenuated by the contextual factors. This study contributes to understanding of online users’ privacy decision by suggesting the interplay between an inherent attribute of information (i.e., information sensitivity) and contextual factors in formulating users’ privacy decision.

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