The Role of Social Cues and Trust in Users’ Private Information Disclosure

Acrossdifferentdomains, websitesareincorporatingsocialmedia features, renderingthemselvesinteractive andcommunity-oriented. This studysuggeststhatthese“friendly”websitesmayindirectlyencourageusers to disclose privateinformation. To investigate this possibility, we carriedoutonline experiments utilizing a YouTube-likevideo-browsingplatform. Thisplatformprovidesarealisticandcontrolledenvironmentinwhich to study users’ behaviors and perceptions during their first encounter with a website. We show that the presence of social cues on a website (e.g., an environment in which users “like” or rate website content) indirectlyaffectsusers’likelihoodofdisclosingprivateinformationtothatwebsite(suchasfullname,address, andbirthdate)byenhancingusers’“socialperceptions”ofthewebsite(i.e.,theirperceptionsthatthewebsite isaplacewheretheycansocializewithothers). Wefurthershowthatthepresenceofsocialcuesismorelikely toenhanceusers’socialperceptionswhenusersareprimedtoperceivethewebsiteastrustworthy,asopposed to untrustworthy (throughthe presentation oftrustcuessuchas data protection disclaimers). Moreover, we ruleoutusers’privacyconcernsasanalternativemechanisminfluencingtherelationshipbetweensocialcues andinformationdisclosure. Wegroundourobservationsingoalsystemsandtrusttheories. Ourinsightsmay be beneficialboth for managers and for policy makers who seekto safeguardusers’ privacy.