Privacy enhancing factors and consumer concerns: the moderating effects of the General Data Protection Regulation

Abstract

Privacy is a fundamental right, with humans often wanting to keep information about themselves private. Technological advancements are challenging this right, however, by reducing our control and creating enhanced privacy risks. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a law introduced to protect this right. The aim of this paper is to analyze how privacy enhancing factors can influence consumer privacy concerns and whether these have been affected by consumer belief relating to the GDPR. Specifically, we examine the influence of four privacy enhancing factors (i.e., organizational trust, perceived personalization value, perceived consumer control, and data transparency), which mostly have personality or attitude-like traits, and the GDPR as a moderating variable. Data were collected from 1154 respondents residing in European Union (EU) countries. Results reveal that personalization value has a significant negative relationship with privacy concerns, while consumer control shares a significant positive relationship with privacy concerns. Organizational trust and data transparency did not have a significant effect on privacy concerns. The relationship between the privacy enhancing factors and privacy concerns was not moderated by consumer belief of the GDPR protections. Implications and recommendations are provided to indicate which privacy enhancing factors should be chosen to reduce privacy concerns and to highlight the role of GDPR in moderating these relationships. Ultimately, the findings provide useful insights for firms operating online in Europe and marketers who are aiming to reduce the privacy concerns of their customers.

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ORCID for Tahir Nisar: orcid.org/0000-0003-2240-5327

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