Abstract
Widespread use of the Internet means that online privacy, or how to protect one’s private information while engaging in online activity, has become a concern for many individuals. Research has investigated people’s online privacy experience, including online privacy attitudes, confidence, and behaviors. However, not much attention has been paid to how online privacy confidence could be misperceived and how educational tools can correct such overconfidence. Guided by the protection motivation theory, this research examines online privacy confidence and is composed of two studies: Study 1 reveals that online users misrepresent their online knowledge and may have overconfidence as a result. Inspired by this finding and previous research, Study 2 avoids self-reported measures of online knowledge and instead directly evaluates online privacy knowledge (using OPLIS) and its impact on online privacy confidence. Using a survey experiment, we find playing an online privacy educational game increases confidence overall and, importantly, corrects overconfidence. Despite this, we do not find any evidence that correction leads to increased information-seeking. The findings shed light on what online users themselves and organizations, such as universities, industry, and government agencies, can do to better educate individuals about online privacy while calling attention to the need for continued research regarding the underlying mechanisms and downstream behavioral consequences.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 990-1007 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Information Communication and Society |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2023 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Communication
- Library and Information Sciences
Keywords
- Online privacy
- educational game
- experiment
- overconfidence
- self-efficacy
- survey