earticle

영어

This study aims to examine a role of privacy cynicism in online users’ privacy behaviors. As the complexity of managing online personal information is increasing and data breach incidents frequently occur, online users feel a loss of control over their privacy. Such a situation leads to their cynical attitudes towards privacy protection, called privacy cynicism. In this study, we assume that privacy cynicism is related to a prevailing phenomenon that online users are inclined to be negligent in making efforts to protect their online privacy, despite the perception of privacy threats. Data were gathered from a survey that 281 people participated in and were analyzed with covariance-based structural equation modeling. Findings reveal that privacy cynicism has not only a direct influence on disclosure intention but also moderates an effect of privacy concerns on the intention. Analytical results also revealed a nonlinear effect of privacy cynicism on the outcome variable. This study contributes to online privacy research by developing the concept of privacy cynicism and its significant role in online privacy behaviors.