Development and Validation of a Scale Measuring theImpact of Information Technologies on the PrivacyPerceptions of Users

摘要

Users are becoming “privacy assertive” as advances in technology cultivate new sensibilities and vulnerabilities aboutinvasions of personal privacy. They ask to be removed from marketing databases, decline to register at e-commerce sites, andavoid web sites with dubious privacy practices. While user concerns about privacy (especially information privacy) are welldocumented in the literature, research on the sources of these concerns is limited. In particular, there is a dearth of IS researchabout the privacy-related characteristics of information technologies that influence user resistance to their adoption. As hasbeen noted, users are less likely to adopt and use technologies when unfavorable impressions are formed, especially duringthe evaluation and trial phases of the adoption process.This paper describes the development and validation of the Privacy Invasiveness Perception Scale (PIPS) which is designedto measure the impact of information technology characteristics on the privacy perceptions of users. The development andvalidation process consists of four phases: 1) developing a conceptual model that specifies the item content domain andallows for the generation of sample items, 2) collecting preliminary scale data to assess reliability, 3) collecting additionalscale data to assess the fit of the conceptual model, and 4) determining the efficacy of the model. The PIPS will enableorganizations to choose more adoptable information technologies that minimize user resistance based on individual privacyconcerns.