Information privacy concerns are one of the major causes behind a dramatic decline in the readiness of individuals to share their personal information on the Internet. The aim of this research is to explore the information privacy concerns from the users’ perspective. In the focal point of this qualitative study stands the kryast.se website. The healthcare promotion activities that this website carries out involve the sharing by its users of their personal information on the Internet. For this reason, this study takes recourse to the construct of Internet Users’ Information Privacy Concerns (IUIPC) developed by Malhotra, Kim and Agarwal (2004) as its interpretive framework. It was expected that by using both semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation among the users of the above mentioned website, the concerns of its users can be identified through the interpretative lens of the analytical framework that Malhotra et al. (2004) proposed for privacy concerns of Internet Users. The results of this study indicate that the selected conceptual lens has sufficiently accounted for the concerns that website users may have when sharing their personal information on the Internet, while indicating that internet users tend to be reluctant in sharing their sensitive information.

The Internet and the growth of Information Technology (IT) and their enhanced capabilities to collect personal information have given rise to many privacy issues. Unauthorized access of personal information may result in identity theft, stalking, harassment, and other invasions of privacy. Information privacy concerns are impediments to broad-scale adoption of the Internet for purchasing decisions. Computer self-efficacy has been shown to be an effective predictor of behavioral intention and a critical determinant of intention to use Information Technology. This study investigated the relationship between an individual's computer self-efficacy and information privacy concerns; and also examined the differences among different age groups and between genders regarding information privacy concerns and their relationships with computer self-efficacy. A paper-based survey was designed to empirically assess computer self-efficacy and information privacy concerns. The survey was developed by combining existing validated scales for computer self-efficacy and information privacy concerns. The target population of this study was the residents of New Jersey, U.S.A. The assessment was done by using the mall-intercept approach in which individuals were asked to fill out the survey. The sample size for this study was 400 students, professionals, and mature adults. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used for testing data normality and the Spearman rank-order test was used for correlation analyses. MANOVA test was used for comparing mean values of computer self-efficacy and information privacy concerns between genders and among age groups. The results showed that the correlation between computer self-efficacy and information privacy concerns was significant and positive; and there were differences between genders and among age groups regarding information privacy concerns and their relationships with computer self-efficacy. This study contributed to the body of knowledge about the relationships among antecedents and consequences of information privacy concerns and computer self-efficacy. The findings of this study can help corporations to improve e-commerce by targeting privacy policy-making efforts to address the explicit areas of consumer privacy concerns. The results of this study can also help IT practitioners to develop privacy protection tools and processes to address specific consumer privacy concerns.

This thesis focuses on examining users’ perceptions of privacy leakage in Facebook – the world’s largest and most popular social network site (SNS). The global popularity of this SNS offers a hugely tempting resource for organisations engaged in online business. The personal data willingly shared between online friends’ networks intuitively appears to be a natural extension of current advertising strategies such as word-of-mouth and viral marketing. Therefore organisations are increasingly adopting innovative ways to exploit the detail-rich personal data of SNS users for business marketing. However, commercial use of such personal information has provoked outrage amongst Facebook users and has radically highlighted the issue of privacy leakage. To date, little is known about how SNS users perceive such leakage of privacy. So a greater understanding of the form and nature of SNS users’ concerns about privacy leakage would contribute to the current literature as well as help to formulate best practice guidelines for organisations. Given the fluid, context-dependent and temporal nature of privacy, a longitudinal case study representing the launch of Facebook’s social Ads programme was conducted to investigate the phenomenon of privacy leakage within its real-life setting. A qualitative user blogs commentary was collected between November 2007 and December 2010 during the two-stage launch of the social Ads programme. Grounded theory data analysis procedures were used to analyse users’ blog postings. The resulting taxonomy shows that business integrity, user control, transparency, data protection breaches, automatic information broadcast and information leak are the core privacy leakage concerns of Facebook users. Privacy leakage concerns suggest three limits, or levels: organisational, user and legal, which provide the basis to understanding the nature and scope of the exploitation of SNS users’ data for commercial purposes. The case study reported herein is novel, as existing empirical research has not identified and analysed privacy leakage concerns of Facebook users.

Authors: Malin Karlsson, Sandra Karlsson, Amanda Malmberg Tutor: Dr. Setayesh Sattari Examiner: Prof. Anders Pehrsson Background: Consumers increasingly purchase products online due to the widespread use of the Internet. The decision for consumers to purchase online is predicted by their purchase intentions, which in turn is affected by their information privacy concerns. There is a lack of research on IPC and purchase intentions in the context of online personalized advertising. Purpose: To extend the understanding of purchase intentions considering information privacy concerns and involvement in the context of online personalized advertising. Methodology: A survey in form of a questionnaire was conducted in order to gather the information necessary to be able to analyse the relationship between IPC and purchase intentions in the context of online personalized advertising. The sample consists of 18-70 year olds from cities in southern Sweden. Conclusion: Conclusions drawn in this thesis is that when applied in the context of online personalized advertising, there is no significant relationship between IPC and purchase intentions. However, involvement is suggested as having a positive relationship to purchase intentions, as well as a positive moderating effect on the relationship between IPC and purchase intention in the context of online personalized advertising. Keywords: Purchase intentions, Information privacy concerns (IPC), Online personalized advertising, Involvement.

As quickly as individuals engage in new ways to share personal information online, their concerns over privacy are increasing. Online engagement is not just “to share or not to share,” but a continuum of the disclosure. To remain engaged online and to avoid privacy exposure, individuals sometimes omit or provide inaccurate information. This process is defined as online equivocation. Drawing on privacy calculus research, this study investigates how individuals use online equivocation to lower privacy concerns in mobile computing, essentially reducing the costs of online disclosure. Several studies are used to explain and analyze online equivocation and draw out the implications for theory, firms, society, and individuals. To achieve this a qualitative questionnaire was distributed among 547 individuals across the United States asking subjects to report whether they had provided inaccurate data online in privacy-concerned situations and to detail the various strategies used. The results indicate that online equivocation can be categorized into five distinct strategies organized on a continuum of level of effort: omission, abbreviation, substitution, combined substitution, and alternative persona. A follow-up questionnaire was completed with 582 respondents that showed individuals use one more online equivocation strategy in the majority of personal information sharing. This result provides a framework for further study of online equivocation. A third and final survey tested a new conceptual model constructed from the results of the previous questionnaires to examine the effects of online equivocation on privacy concerns, collecting 2,947 responses. The final survey analysis found that individuals employed online equivocation strategies to help reduce privacy concerns in mobile computing and contributed to privacy calculus theory, contending that individuals will make a cost-benefit analysis regarding whether to disclose inaccurate personal information to reduce privacy concerns. However, the research shows that the behavior of online equivocation positively effects mobile privacy concerns, implying that the more that individuals online equivocate, the more likely they are to be concerned about privacy. Overall, the study shows that online equivocation is a fairly common strategy, leading to high percentages of inaccurate data collected by businesses. Inaccurate personal information from consumers can misinform companies and lead to incorrect business decisions, affecting the nature of the products or services offered. Firms aiming to compete online depend on the quality of the information they collect from consumers and may view understanding this phenomenon as strategically crucial to competitiveness. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Abstract When personal data are collected and utilised to produce personal data intensive services, users of these services are exposed to the possibility of privacy losses. Users’ information privacy concerns may lead to non-adoption of new services and technologies, affecting the quality and the completeness of the collected data. These issues make it challenging to fully reap the benefits brought by the services. The evaluation of information privacy concerns makes it possible to address these concerns in the design and the development of personal data intensive services. This research investigated how privacy concerns evaluations should be developed to make them valid in the evolving data collection contexts. The research was conducted in two phases: employing a mixed-method research design and using a literature review methodology. In Phase 1, two empirical studies were conducted, following a mixed-method exploratory sequential design. In both studies, the data subjects’ privacy behaviour and privacy concerns that were associated with mobility data collection were first explored qualitatively, and quantitative instruments were then developed based on the qualitative results to generalise the findings. Phase 2 was planned to provide an extensive view on privacy behaviour and some possibilities to develop privacy concerns evaluation in new data collection contexts. Phase 2 consisted of two review studies: a systematic literature review of privacy behaviour models and a review of the EU data privacy legislation changes. The results show that in evolving data collection contexts, privacy behaviour and concerns have characteristics that differ from earlier ones. Privacy concerns have aspects specific to these contexts, and their multifaceted nature appears emphasised. Because privacy concerns are related to other privacy behaviour antecedents, it may be reasonable to incorporate some of these antecedents into evaluations. The existing privacy concerns evaluation instruments serve as valid starting points for evaluations in evolving personal data collection contexts. However, these instruments need to be revised and adapted to the new contexts. The development of privacy concerns evaluation may be challenging due to the incoherence of the existing privacy behaviour research. More overarching research is called for to facilitate the application of the existing knowledge. / Tiivistelmä Kun henkilötietoja kerätään ja hyödynnetään dataintensiivisten palveluiden tuottamiseen, palveluiden käyttäjien tietosuoja saattaa heikentyä. Käyttäjien tietosuojahuolet voivat hidastaa uusien palveluiden ja teknologioiden käyttöönottoa sekä vaikuttaa kerättävän tiedon laatuun ja kattavuuteen. Tämä hankaloittaa palveluiden täysimittaista hyödyntämistä. Tietosuojahuolten arviointi mahdollistaa niiden huomioimisen henkilötietoperusteisten palveluiden suunnittelussa ja kehittämisessä. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin, kuinka tietosuojahuolten arviointia tulisi kehittää muuttuvissa tiedonkeruuympäristöissä. Kaksivaiheisessa tutkimuksessa toteutettiin aluksi empiirinen monimenetelmällinen tutkimus ja tämän jälkeen systemaattinen kirjallisuustutkimus. Ensimmäisessä vaiheessa tehtiin kaksi empiiristä tutkimusta monimenetelmällisen tutkimuksen tutkivan peräkkäisen asetelman mukaisesti. Näissä tutkimuksissa selvitettiin ensin laadullisin menetelmin tietosuojakäyttäytymistä ja tietosuojahuolia liikkumisen dataa kerättäessä. Laadullisten tulosten pohjalta kehitettiin kvantitatiiviset instrumentit tulosten yleistettävyyden tutkimiseksi. Tutkimuksen toisessa vaiheessa toteutettiin kaksi katsaustyyppistä tutkimusta, jotta saataisiin kattava käsitys tietosuojakäyttäytymisestä sekä mahdollisuuksista kehittää tietosuojahuolten arviointia uusissa tiedonkeruuympäristöissä. Nämä tutkimukset olivat systemaattinen kirjallisuuskatsaus tietosuojakäyttäytymisen malleista sekä katsaus EU:n tietosuojalainsäädännön muutoksista. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että kehittyvissä tiedonkeruuympäristöissä tietosuojakäyttäytyminen ja tietosuojahuolet poikkeavat aikaisemmista ympäristöistä. Näissä ympäristöissä esiintyy niille ominaisia tietosuojahuolia ja huolten monitahoisuus korostuu. Koska tietosuojahuolet ovat kytköksissä muihin tietosuojakäyttäytymistä ennustaviin muuttujiin, arviointeihin voi olla aiheellista sisällyttää myös näitä muuttujia. Olemassa olevia tietosuojahuolten arviointi-instrumentteja on perusteltua käyttää arvioinnin lähtökohtana myös kehittyvissä tiedonkeruuympäristöissä, mutta niitä on mukautettava uusiin ympäristöihin soveltuviksi. Arvioinnin kehittäminen voi olla haasteellista, sillä aikaisempi tietosuojatutkimus on epäyhtenäistä. Jotta sitä voidaan soveltaa asianmukaisesti arviointien kehittämisessä, tutkimusta on vietävä kokonaisvaltaisempaan suuntaan.

The use of online personalized advertisements has drawn attention among firms, in efforts of acquiring and maintaining competitive advantage. By collecting individual consumer information, firms are able to personalize advertisements to specific individuals in online contexts. The collection and use of individuals’ personal information have given rise to privacy concerns among consumers. However, contemporary research displays disparate conclusions regarding the extent to which these privacy concerns influence the effectiveness of online personalized advertisements. In order to provide insights regarding this discrepancy, this study explored the theoretical foundations of consumer perceived benefits and risks, upon which contemporary research was based. Two focus groups were conducted to explore how consumers perceive benefits and risks of online personalized advertisements. Using pattern matching, the interpretation of the empirically gathered material implied that consumer perceived benefits, in form of perceived relevance, appears to be insufficient in appealing to the interests and preferences of consumers. Instead, consumers’ perceptions of relevance appear to be dependent on several elements. Furthermore, the findings imply that consumers are aware of the risks through personal information disclosure, yet appear to be unconcerned by them. Instead, consumers seem to possess a sense of hopelessness in online environments, that attempts to restrict the availability of their personal information are pointless.

The traditional type of marketing is more directed towards big customer segments in specified areas. Due to technological improvement marketing has evolved into an extreme form of segmentation where marketing target the individual consumer based on their personal needs and preferences. This has led to a discussion of whether personalized marketing is something that create privacy concerns or benefits in the eyes of the consumer.     The purpose of this thesis is to explore the consumer perception of personalized marketing and how the perception affects the purchase decision-making process.   A conceptual framework was developed based on earlier research within personalized marketing. A qualitative method with an abductive approach has been used. Our primary data was collected through 8 different semi-structured interviews and consisted of men and women in the age span of 40-59 years’ old who had engaged in e-commerce at least once during the last six months.   Our empirical data has been analyzed out of the literature review, which founds the basis for our findings. Our findings show that the consumer perception of personalized marketing affect the consumer decision-making process in varying ways. A positive perception of the personalized marketing makes the consumer more susceptible to it, which further impacts the different stages in the process.

The dissertation seeks to bridge the gap between privacy and social capital on SNS use by bringing the essential elements of social networking, privacy concerns, privacy management, self-disclosure, and social capital together to examine their complex relationships and the daily challenges every SNS user faces. The major purposes of this dissertation were to revisit the privacy paradox phenomenon, update the current relationships among privacy concerns, self-disclosure, and social capital on Facebook, integrate these relationships into a quantitative model, and explore the role of privacy management in these relationships. The goal was realized by using Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk to test a theoretical model that used survey data from 522 respondents. The findings from the dissertation show the impact of the structural factor—Facebook social network intensity and diversity—and the impact of individuals’ self-disclosure on Facebook on their perceived bridging and bonding social capital. This dissertation employed various measurements of key variables to update the current status of the privacy paradox phenomenon—the disconnection between privacy concerns and self- disclosure on social media—and found the break of the traditional privacy paradox and the existence of the social privacy paradox. Findings also show that private information about personal information, thoughts, and ideas shared on Facebook become assets in using Facebook and accumulating social capital. Meanwhile, higher privacy concerns reduce the level of self-disclosure on Facebook. Therefore, privacy concerns become a barrier in Facebook use and in accumulating social capital within these networks. This dissertation further examined the mediating role of privacy management to solve the dilemma. Findings confirmed that privacy management is important in redirecting the relationships among privacy concerns, self-disclosure, and social capital. People who have higher privacy concerns tend to disclose fewer personal thoughts and ideas on Facebook and miss the opportunity to accumulate social capital. However, when they employ more privacy management strategies, they are more willing to self-disclose and thus accumulate more social capital on Facebook networks. Lastly, the proposed integrated model examined through SEM analysis confirms the delicate relationships among the social networking characteristics, privacy concerns, privacy management, self-disclosure, and social capital. / text

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explain how privacy concerns impact the relationship between personalization and the factors of advertising value on smartphone advertising. Design/methodology/approach: A explanatory research design with a quantitative approach was conducted, utilizing an online questionnaire with a total of 103 respondents. Conclusion: The result indicates that privacy concerns only moderates the relationship between personalization and entertainment. It was also shown that privacy concerns had a direct impact on irritation Research limitations: The result is not generalizable as a non-probability sample was used, and only respondents between the 18-35 answered the questionnaire. Originality/value: A new perspective of how the moderation of privacy concerns impacts the relationship between personalization and the factors of advertising value. Keywords: Smartphone advertising, advertising value, informativeness, entertainment, irritation, credibility, incentives, privacy concerns. Paper type: Research paper