New paper published in Electronic Markets: Perceived information sensitivity and interdependent privacy protection: A quantitative study
Prof. Dr. Sven Laumer and his co-authors of the University of Bamberg have published a new paper in Electronic Markets, The International Journal on Networked Business. The paper focuses on information sensitivity and interdependent privacy protection and reveals when people will protect the privacy of other people.
From a theoretical point of view, previous research has considered information sensitivity in terms of potential negative consequences for someone who has disclosed information to others and that information becomes public. However, making information public could also have negative consequences for other individuals as well.
In the paper, Laumer and his co-authors extend the concept of information sensitivity to include negative consequences for other individuals and apply it in a quantitative research study.
The results prove that the extended concept of information sensitivity leads to a better understanding of privacy-related concepts especially in an interdependent privacy setting. It is especially shown, that the co-owner also considers the information sensitivity of the original owner and that when the co-owner expects many negative consequences for the original owner the sensitivity of the information for the co-owner is less important. However, when the co-owner does not see a high information sensitivity for the original owner, the sensitivity of the information for the co-owner is more important.
The paper contributes to theory by defining the extended concept of information sensitivity and by drawing conclusions on how to use it in future privacy research studies.
Reference: Wirth, J., Maier, C., Laumer, S., Weitzel, T.: Perceived information sensitivity and interdependent privacy protection: A quantitative study; Electronic Markets (2019).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-019-00335-0