ESSAYS IN INFORMATION PRIVACY: DEFINING & ANALYZING ONLINE EQUIVOCATION

Abstract

As quickly as individuals engage in new ways to share personal information online, their concerns over privacy are increasing. Online engagement is not just “to share or not to share,” but a continuum of the disclosure. To remain engaged online and to avoid privacy exposure, individuals sometimes omit or provide inaccurate information. This process is defined as online equivocation. Drawing on privacy calculus research, this study investigates how individuals use online equivocation to lower privacy concerns in mobile computing, essentially reducing the costs of online disclosure. Several studies are used to explain and analyze online equivocation and draw out the implications for theory, firms, society, and individuals. To achieve this a qualitative questionnaire was distributed among 547 individuals across the United States asking subjects to report whether they had provided inaccurate data online in privacy-concerned situations and to detail the various strategies used. The results indicate that online equivocation can be categorized into five distinct strategies organized on a continuum of level of effort: omission, abbreviation, substitution, combined substitution, and alternative persona. A follow-up questionnaire was completed with 582 respondents that showed individuals use one more online equivocation strategy in the majority of personal information sharing. This result provides a framework for further study of online equivocation. A third and final survey tested a new conceptual model constructed from the results of the previous questionnaires to examine the effects of online equivocation on privacy concerns, collecting 2,947 responses. The final survey analysis found that individuals employed online equivocation strategies to help reduce privacy concerns in mobile computing and contributed to privacy calculus theory, contending that individuals will make a cost-benefit analysis regarding whether to disclose inaccurate personal information to reduce privacy concerns. However, the research shows that the behavior of online equivocation positively effects mobile privacy concerns, implying that the more that individuals online equivocate, the more likely they are to be concerned about privacy. Overall, the study shows that online equivocation is a fairly common strategy, leading to high percentages of inaccurate data collected by businesses. Inaccurate personal information from consumers can misinform companies and lead to incorrect business decisions, affecting the nature of the products or services offered. Firms aiming to compete online depend on the quality of the information they collect from consumers and may view understanding this phenomenon as strategically crucial to competitiveness.