The role of privacy assurance mechanisms in building trust and the moderating role of privacy concern

Abstract

Privacy policy statements and privacy assurance cues are among the most important website features that online providers use to increase individuals’ trust and willingness to disclose private information online. The focus of this study is a comprehensive examination of the process by which privacy assurance mechanisms influence trust and the moderating role of privacy concern in this process. We use the lens of the Elaboration Likelihood Model to investigate the way different individuals perceive and process privacy assurance mechanisms. We argue that the trust-enhancing role of these mechanisms depends on the individual’s privacy concern. The results of this study articulate the process by which various privacy assurance mechanisms operate in enhancing an individual’s trust, and show that there are distinct behavioral differences between individuals with high- vs low-privacy concern when forming their trust to disclose private information. The paper sheds new light on the role of elaboration in the trust building process, and shows why privacy assurance mechanisms have different impacts depending on individuals’ privacy concerns.

Keywords:

• information privacy concern
• trust
• elaboration likelihood model
• privacy policy statements
• privacy assurance cues

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gaurav Bansal

About the authors

Dr. Gaurav Bansal is an Associate Professor of MIS/Statistics at the Cofrin School of Business, UW-Green Bay. He received his Ph.D. from UW-Milwaukee. His research has received several awards at Midwest-AIS conferences and best paper nominations at AMCIS and ICIS conferences. He has published in journals such as JMIS, DSS, JOCEC, and JCIS. He served as President for the Midwest Association for Information Systems (2014–2015). Earlier he worked for General Motors India, and Daewoo Motors India as a Quality-Assurance Executive.

Fatemeh ‘Mariam’ Zahedi

Dr. Fatemeh ‘Mariam’ Zahedi is a professor and Roger L. Fitzsimonds Distinguished Scholar at the Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has received her doctoral degree from Indiana University. Her areas of research include design and behavior issues in web-based IT systems. She has served as SE and AE of MIS Quarterly, editorial board of JMIS, and AE of ISR. She has published more than 120 referred papers in premier journals and conferences, and received funding from NSF.

David Gefen

Dr. David Gefen is the Provost Distinguished Research Professor at Drexel University. He has authored some of the most cited papers in MIS on the importance and ways of managing trust. Before becoming an academic Professor, he was a systems design programmer, systems analyst, and manager in charge of the ongoing development of logistics information systems. His research has been published in leading journals, including MISQ, ISR, JMIS and Omega. He is on the editorial board of MISQ and JMIS.