Addressing the privacy paradox on the organizational level: review and future directions

Abstract

The discrepancy between informational privacy attitudes and actual behaviour of consumers is called the “privacy paradox”. Researchers across disciplines have formulated different theories on why consumers’ privacy concerns do not translate into increased protective behaviour. Over the past two decades multiple differing explanations for the paradox have been published. However, authors generally agree that companies are in a strong position to reduce consumers’ paradoxical behaviour by improving their customers’ informational privacy. Hence, this paper aims at answering the question: How can companies address the privacy paradox to improve their customers’ information privacy? Reviewing a sample of improvement recommendations from 138 papers that explore 41 theories in total, we determined that companies can generally align their privacy practices more closely with customers’ expectations across 4 inter-connected managerial processes: (1) strategic initiatives, (2) structural improvements, (3) human resource management, and (4) service development. The findings of this systematic literature review detail how companies can address both the rational and irrational nature of the privacy decision-making process. Furthermore, we propose a dynamic model able to identify weaknesses and strengths in companies’ privacy orientation.

The Impact of Shared Information Presentation Time on Users’ Privacy-Regulation Behavior in the Context of Vertical Privacy: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…We tested the participants’ privacy concerns and perceived information overload as two control variables besides demographics in this conceptual model. The existence of the effect of privacy concerns on the users’ privacy behaviors is still controversial because many studies have found a phenomenon privacy paradox wherein privacy concerns did not affect the users’ privacy behaviors, while many other studies posited that privacy concerns did affect the users’ privacy behaviors [ 62 , 63 , 64 ]. Perceived information overload is also regarded as a factor that could cause user privacy fatigue, leading to privacy behaviors [ 65 ].…”

Privacy in hospitality: managing biometric and biographic data with immersive technology

“…The privacy paradox persists because data remains online indefinitely, even after its initial use, creating a dilemma for consumers in assessing privacy risks. The privacy paradox, commonly examined within the consumer context, presents higher challenges for organizations with immersive technology in navigating privacy violations (Gotsch and Schögel, 2021).…”

“…This study offers a novel doctrine, the uncontrollable privacy paradox (see Figure 2), acknowledging the unbalanced privacy of consumers in sharing biometric data in the metaverse. In doing so, we address the call of scholars (Barth et al, 2022;Gotsch and Schögel, 2021;Kokolakis, 2017;Masur, 2023), offering a holistic understanding of the privacy paradox. The demarcation of privacy paradox from biographic to biometric data strengthens the privacy paradox literature and its position in the dynamic metaverse environment.…”