Intentions vs behaviour: Investigating the users’ lack of resistance towards surveillance capitalism
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Journal Title
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Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2024
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Information and Service Management (ISM)
Language
en
Pages
117
Series
Abstract
The proliferation of surveillance capitalism and the ensuing increased collection of users’ data have raised profound ethical questions and concerns on privacy. This thesis investigates the complex relationship between surveillance capitalism and the privacy paradox. Drawing upon privacy research, this study examines users’ privacy concerns, information disclosure behaviours and use of privacy protection practices in the context of Google services. Through a survey of 139 respondents, new insights linked to privacy knowledge and its role in adopting behaviours to safeguard online privacy were found. The findings reveal that the privacy paradox is a prevalent factor in the success of surveillance capitalist businesses. Most respondents indicate high levels of privacy concerns, yet a rather small proportion uses practices to safeguard their privacy online. Increasing knowledge did not translate into intentions to limit information disclosure by reducing the use of services. However, it slightly increased interest towards self-restraining information disclosure (chilling effect-related behaviour) and adopting tools or practices that restrict data extraction (privacy-protective behaviour). It seems that users try to balance between benefits and risks to the best of their ability by adjusting their behaviour instead of using more technical countermeasures. While the proposed theoretical framework provides a good understanding of the privacy paradox, the findings can contribute to refining this framework further. The phenomenon is a result of cognitive processes where individuals make trade-offs regarding perceived benefits and risks related to personal information disclosure behaviours. Against expectations, perceived behavioural control had a decreasing effect on privacy protection tendencies possibly suggesting the presence of an illusion of control. Additionally, in some cases increasing privacy knowledge seems to lead to feelings of despair, often referred to as privacy fatigue. The main issues hindering adoption of protection strategies include lack of procedural knowledge, perceived impracticality of practices and difficulty of use, as well as feelings of hopelessness and loss of control. To solve these issues, multifaceted interventions are necessary. Explorations into novel economic models creating shared value for all stakeholders as opposed to myopic prioritization of shareholder profits may prove to be useful. Concurrently, more effective international regulations are needed to push companies towards providing more options for protecting privacy or opting out of data extraction while simultaneously increasing awareness of users.Description
Thesis advisor
Tuunainen, VirpiKeywords
surveillance capitalism, personal data, privacy paradox, privacy concerns, big data, privacy-protective behaviour, chilling effect, survey