Platform rules as privacy tools: The influence of screenshot accountability and trust on privacy management

Abstract

Society has normalized the use of the screenshot feature to surreptitiously capture and share private digital messages. While screenshots have utilitarian purposes, we provide evidence that this feature enables violations of interpersonal privacy expectations. In addition, we extend communication privacy management (CPM) theory beyond its interpersonal limitations to include platforms as privacy rulemakers through explicit cues and embedded trust. We conducted a 2(Accountability cue: present or absent) × 3(Platform trust: high, low, control) between-subjects experiment to understand their conditional impact on control over and disclosure of personal and co-owned information within a proposed digital messaging platform ( N = 307). Our experimental results showcase the power of a screenshot accountability cue and platform trust on privacy perceptions and management within messaging platforms. Implications for design against the screenshot feature are discussed.