Privacy Goals Versus Disclosure Goals: Towards an Understanding of the Privacy-Consumption Trade-Off

Drawing on image-elicited depth interviews, we investigate how consumers manage the privacy-consumption trade-off. Our findings reveal that consumers’ privacy and disclosure decisions are contingent upon their personal goals and highlight an underlying tension between informants’ privacy goals and disclosure goals. Our analysis identified six privacy goals (safety, sovereignty, freedom, solitude, control, ownership) and four disclosure goals (benefits, interpersonal, altruism, survival). As a result, consumers may engage in one or more coping strategies to reconcile goal tension, which include rationalize, blind faith, defend, and/or off grid. In articulating our findings, we present a goal-directed framework for understanding and managing these trade-offs.

Citation:

Jo En Yap, Michael B. Beverland, and Liliana L. Bove (2011) ,"Privacy Goals Versus Disclosure Goals: Towards an Understanding of the Privacy-Consumption Trade-Off", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 231-236.