Rational disclosure or privacy paradox? Consumer data-sharing in financial app ecosystems
摘要
This paper examines whether the “privacy paradox,” i.e., a dichotomy between privacy attitudes and privacy behaviors in online environments, is visible among users of financial apps. Drawing on survey data from Dutch consumers, we refine the Privacy Paradox Metric (PPM) to better distinguish between paradoxical and rational behavior. We find that paradoxical use of financial apps, as measured by the privacy paradox metric, is moderate and that many users seem to make a rational calculation of benefits versus privacy risks. Paradoxical non-use is higher. This could be an efficiency issue, but is not a problem from a risk perspective. Regression analysis shows that app use correlates positively with perceived benefits and negatively with privacy risks, and also suggests that many financial app users do not suffer from immediate gratification bias. In addition, we find that people who vary in general privacy concerns differ in the factors that influence their use of financial apps. This suggests heterogeneity in decision-making across privacy concern levels. Overall, the results rather point to rational than to privacy paradoxical behavior among the users of financial apps.