It is more than personal: development and validation of a multidimensional privacy orientation scale

Abstract

This study summarizes the development and validation of a multidimensional privacy orientation scale designed for measuring privacy attitudes of Social Network Site (SNS) users. Findings confirm the existence of four dimensions: 1) belief in the value of “privacy as a right”; 3) “othercontingent privacy”; 2) “concern about own informational privacy” and 4) “concern about privacy of others.” Moreover, a segmentation of SNS users reveals three types of users: 1) privacy advocates, who are concerned about both their own and other people’s privacy; 2) privacy individualists, who are concerned mostly about their own privacy, and 3) privacy indifferents, whose score on all dimensions are lower than other segments. The results indicate that the four privacy orientation dimensions and three user segments predict key differences in terms of privacy protective behavior, information disclosure, and viewing personal information of others.