Preliminary draft prepared for WEIS 2010. Please do not distribute. We introduce and test the hypothesis that control over publication of private information may influence individuals' privacy concerns and affect their propensity to disclose sensitive information, even when the objective risks associated with such disclosures do not change or worsen. We designed three experiments in the form of online surveys administered to students at a North-American University. In all experiments we manipulated the participants' control over information publication, but not their control over the actual access to and usage by others of the published information. Our findings suggest, paradoxically, that more control over the publication of their private information decreases individuals' privacy concerns and increases their willingness to publish sensitive information, even when the probability that strangers will access and use that information stays the same or, in fact, increases. On the other hand, less control over the publication of personal information increases individuals' privacy concerns and decreases their willingness to publish sensitive information, even when the probability that strangers will access and use that information actually decreases. Our findings have both behavioral and policy implications, as they highlight how technologies that make individuals feel more in control over the publication of personal information may have the paradoxical and unintended consequence of eliciting their disclosure of more sensitive information.
Indeed, a recent study showed that people believed that they had more control over who can access and use their online personal information REF and actually provided more personal and even sensitive information when given artificial control over the publication of such information.
Misplaced Confidences: Privacy and the Control Paradox
WEIS
Computer Science Psychology