LanguageTerm (authority = ISO 639-3:2007); (type = text)
English
Abstract (type = abstract)
Individuals often demonstrate privacy behaviors that are contrary to their concerns about information sharing and use. Literature has termed this phenomenon the “privacy paradox.” In this dissertation we seek to bridge the gap between information privacy concerns and demonstrated disclosure behavior using social interventions. We examined the essential elements of privacy concerns, information disclosure, social influence, privacy interventions, and individual interactions with interventions to study their complex relationships and the daily information disclosure challenges faced by individuals. The major purposes of this dissertation are to revisit the privacy paradox phenomenon, examine the relationships among privacy concerns and information disclosure, use these relationships to design novel interventions, and explore the role of social interventions in bridging the gap between information privacy concerns and behaviors.
This goal was realized by conducting a 20 day between-subject field study comparing the effectiveness of interventions based on social-proof and information inconsistency with a base-line to identify the most efficient way of reducing the concern-behavior gap. Findings show that knowledge about peer behavior caused individuals to rethink their own disclosure behavior. Individuals tended to believe that their privacy concerns and information disclosure behaviors are similar to many of their peers. When they received a reminder that their concern-behavior gap was higher than their peers, they were inclined to re-evaluate their privacy concerns and behavior. Findings further showed that while any reminder about information privacy resulted in more privacy sensitive behavior, changing overall privacy concerns was a more nuanced and subtle process often influenced by external or contextual factors.
We also examined the effect that different interventions had on the cognitive processes guiding privacy decision making. From a thematic analysis of participant interviews, we were able to delve deeper into understanding how participants interacted with the interventions, the different ways in which each intervention affected privacy concerns and disclosure, and the different design elements that participants reacted to. We discussed shifts in privacy concerns and disclosure in detail breaking apart different elements of the interventions (textual, visual, numeric) and why participants found some of these elements to be more important than other. Finally, we discuss the implications of the concern-behavior gap, and the effectiveness of interventions in achieving this goal.
Subject (authority = local)
Topic
Privacy paradox
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Communication, Information and Library Studies
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_11185
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (ix, 129 pages) : illustrations
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
School of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10001600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.