Are data breaches the new norm? Exploring data breach trends, consumer sentiment, and responses to security invasions

Although data breaches are common, limited knowledge exists regarding consumer sentiments towards them and the personal actions taken following a breach. First, we explore trends using a database chronicling 14 years of breaches. Then, guided by Social Contract Theory, our study analyzes a secondary...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of consumer affairs Vol. 57; no. 3; pp. 1089 - 1119
Main Authors Markos, Ereni, Peña, Priscilla, Labrecque, Lauren I., Swani, Kunal
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Madison Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2023
Subjects
Action
Calculus
Companies
Consumers
Data
Data integrity
Information management
Invasions
Responses
Security
Social contract
Theory
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Summary:Although data breaches are common, limited knowledge exists regarding consumer sentiments towards them and the personal actions taken following a breach. First, we explore trends using a database chronicling 14 years of breaches. Then, guided by Social Contract Theory, our study analyzes a secondary dataset of survey responses from 890 affected consumers to understand perceptions of breaches, including attitudes towards businesses, expected actions businesses take following a breach, and protective actions. The integration of Social Contract Theory with Privacy Calculus Theory and Protection Motivation Theory in the study of data breaches provides a lens to examine how context‐specific attributes impact consumer actions following a breach. Our findings show that data breaches are frequent, vary across industries, and consumer attitudes and actions vary by data type compromised.
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ISSN:0022-0078
1745-6606
DOI:10.1111/joca.12554