No abstract

This systematic review addresses problems identified in existing research on survey measurements of individuals’ information privacy concerns in online contexts. The search in this study focused on articles published between 1996 and 2019 and yielded 970 articles. After excluding duplicates and screening for eligibility, we were left with 13 articles in which the investigators developed a total of 16 survey scales. In addition to reviewing the conceptualizations, contexts, and dimensionalities of the scales, we evaluated the quality of methodological procedures used in the scale development process, drawing upon the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) Risk of Bias checklist. The results confirmed that the breadth of conceptualizations and dimensions of information privacy concerns are constructed with a low emphasis on contextuality. Assessment of the quality of methodological procedures suggested a need for a more thorough evaluation of content validity. We provide several recommendations for tackling these issues and propose new research directions.

Research on digital inequality has found that aging adults are often at risk of digital exclusion. Understanding the validity of survey measures assessing internet skills in this population is critical to providing the high-quality data needed for effective digital inclusion policy interventions. This cross-validation study examines the structural validity and measurement invariance (across age, gender, and education groups) of the Web-Use Skills scale (WUS), which is commonly used as a proxy measure of internet skills. We tested the 14-item version of the WUS. The scale was translated into the Slovenian language and pretested with older internet users. Data were collected from two independent samples of internet users aged 50+ years (N 1 = 259, N 2 = 256) drawn from an online opt-in panel in Slovenia. The examination of structural validity confirmed that the WUS adequately reflects the one-factor structure of the web-use skills construct, albeit in a shorter six-item form. Moreover, the analysis confirmed strict measurement invariance between the two samples, and at least scalar invariance between age, gender, and education groups. The results support the applicability of WUS in cross-group comparisons of internet skills in the aging internet users' population and point to several opportunities for future work.

Internet privacy has been proposed as a new dimension of the digital divide. Although Internet privacy relates to all segments of the population, older Internet users are particularly vulnerable because they generally have lower Internet skills. Coupled with their high level of privacy concerns, this can dissuade them from fully engaging in a variety of Internet uses. As older adults overcome their limited Internet skills by asking others to perform online activities on their behalf, a practice known as use-by-proxy, it is likely that this is also a strategy for dealing with Internet privacy concerns. Therefore, we examine how Internet skills, along with Internet privacy concerns and perceived privacy control, influence their Internet uses and use-by-proxy. To this end, we develop an integrative conceptual model and test it with structural equation modelling using data collected in November 2021 from a nationwide sample of 460 Internet users aged 65+ in Slovenia.

Povzetek. Informacijska zasebnost je z razvojem računalnikov in interneta postala eno izmed pomembnih družbenih vprašanj, saj nove tehnologije omogočajo neslutene možnosti zbiranja in analize podatkov. Ker ima to posledice tako za demokratične družbe kot za vedénje posameznikov, se tej temi posvečajo številni raziskovalci iz različnih znanstvenih disciplin. V članku se osredotočimo na posameznikovo informacijsko zasebnost v internetnem okolju iz socialno-psihološkega vidika in predstavimo enega izmed osrednjih pojmov na tem področju, in sicer skrb za informacijsko zasebnost. Opišemo njegov dosedanji razvoj, konceptualna izhodišča in raziskovalne izzive. Na koncu podamo usmeritve za načrtovanje študij na tem raziskovalnem področju. Ključni pojmi: informacijska zasebnost, internet, raziskovalni izzivi, konceptualizacija, skrb za informacijsko zasebnost