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Research Note—Privacy Concerns and Privacy-Protective Behavior in Synchronous Online Social Interactions

Zhenhui (Jack) Jiang¹; Cheng Suang Heng²; Ben C. F. Choi³

¹ Department of Information Systems, School of Computing, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117418; and National University of Singapore (Suzhou) Research Institute, Suzhou, People's Republic of China 215123 · ² Department of Information Systems, School of Computing, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117418 · ³ Australian School of Business, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia

Privacy is of prime importance to many individuals when they attempt to develop online social relationships. Nonetheless, it has been observed that individuals' behavior is at times inconsistent with their privacy concerns, e.g., they disclose substantial private information in synchronous online social interactions, even though they are aware of the risks involved. Drawing on the hyperpersonal framework and the privacy calculus perspective, this paper elucidates the interesting roles of privacy concerns and social rewards in synchronous online social interactions by examining the causes and the behavioral strategies that individuals utilize to protect their privacy. An empirical study involving 251 respondents was conducted in online chat rooms. Our results indicate that individuals utilize both self-disclosure and misrepresentation to protect their privacy and that social rewards help explain why individuals may not behave in accordance with their privacy concerns. In addition, we find that perceived anonymity of others and perceived intrusiveness affect both privacy concerns and social rewards. Our findings also suggest that higher perceived anonymity of self decreases individuals' privacy concerns, and higher perceived media richness increases social rewards. Generally, this study contributes to the information systems literature by integrating the hyperpersonal framework and the privacy calculus perspective to identify antecedents of privacy trade-off and predict individuals' behavior in synchronous online social interactions.

DOI

10.1287/isre.1120.0441

Volume

24 (3)

Pages

579-595

Language

en

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