Open AccessSocial Network Self-Protection Model: What Motivates Users to Self-Protect?
Author(s) -
Damjan Fujs,
Anˇze Miheliˇc,
Simon Vrhovec
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of cyber security and mobility
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.198
H-Index - 9
eISSN - 2245-4578
pISSN - 2245-1439
DOI - 10.13052/2245-1439.844
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , internet privacy , norm (philosophy) , theory of planned behavior , context (archaeology) , personally identifiable information , privacy protection , computer security , social psychology , psychology , control (management) , computer science , political science , paleontology , communication , artificial intelligence , law , biology
Social networks are an indispensable activity for billions of users making them an attractive target for cyberattacks. There is however only scarce research on self-protection of individuals outside the organizational context. This study aims to address this gap by explaining what motivates individuals to self-protect on social networks. A survey (N = 274) has been conducted among Slovenian Facebook users to test the proposed social network selfprotection model. The results show that privacy concerns and perceived threats significantly affect user’s intention to self-protect. Descriptive norm only affects intention indirectly through perceived threats appearing to contradict a large body of research on behavioral intentions. “If others protect themselves, there must be a serious threat.” On the other hand, it also helps to explain why the direct effect of descriptive norm on security-related behavior is relatively small in other studies. Surveillance concerns, regulation and information sensitivity all significantly affect privacy concerns.Although privacy concerns are currently high due to the recent high-profile privacy-related scandals (e.g., Cambridge Analytica, Facebook, Google+), it may not affect the motivation of users to self-protect as they dealt with issues far beyond their control. Nevertheless, users with higher levels of privacy concerns than their peers may be more motivated to self-protect.1