Privacy utility and privacy disutility expectancy: An empirical study on social app usage

Abstract

Social apps fundamentally transform the way individuals manage their online identities through proxy-disclosure. While individuals do enjoy the potential enhancement to reputation that is realized through social app postings, they could have their privacy threatened when these apps make posting in an uncontrolled fashion. Drawing on the APCO model, this research elucidates the impact of the two key aspects of online proxy-disclosure on privacy expectancy formulation, which in turn influence usage intention of social apps. A survey was conducted to operationalize the research model. Results provide strong evidence that the two determinants of privacy expectancy strongly influence individuals' perceptions of privacy utility and privacy disutility. Furthermore, the two types of privacy utility powerful drive usage intention of social apps. The implications of the findings are discussed.