The penalty for privacy violations: How privacy violations impact trust online

With information misuse as a particularly salient form of risk online, respecting privacy is often closely tied to trust in consumer surveys. This study uses factorial vignette survey methodology to measure the relative importance of violating privacy expectations to consumers' trust in a websi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of business research Vol. 82; pp. 103 - 116
Main Author Martin, Kirsten
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Inc 01.01.2018
Elsevier B.V
Subjects
E-commerce
Market surveys
Online trust
Privacy
Privacy, Right of
Trust factors
Website trust
Privacy
Website trust
E-commerce
Trust factors
Online trust
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Summary:With information misuse as a particularly salient form of risk online, respecting privacy is often closely tied to trust in consumer surveys. This study uses factorial vignette survey methodology to measure the relative importance of violating privacy expectations to consumers' trust in a website. The findings suggest consumers find violations of privacy expectations, specifically the secondary uses of information, to diminish trust in a website. Firms that violate privacy expectations are penalized twice: violations of privacy (1) impact trust directly and (2) diminish the importance of trust factors such as integrity and ability on trust. In addition, consumers with greater technology savvy place greater importance on privacy factors than respondents with less knowledge. Violations of privacy may place firms in a downward trust spiral by decreasing not only trust in the website but also the impact of possible mechanisms to rebuild trust such as a firm's integrity and ability. •This study uses factorial vignette survey methodology to measure the relative importance of violating privacy to users' trust in a website.•The findings suggest consumers find privacy violations, specifically the secondary uses of information, to diminish trust in a website•The results show that firms are penalized twice with violations of privacy expectations.•Violations such as using information to target friends negatively impacts trust and decreases the weight of a firm’s integrity in trust judgments;•Similarly, selling to a data aggregator both negatively impacts trust directly and decreases the weight of ability on trust.•Violations of privacy may place firms in a downward trust spiral by decreasing trust in the firm but and the impact of mechanisms to rebuild trust
ISSN:0148-2963
1873-7978
DOI:10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.08.034