Users' Willingness to Share Data on the Internet: Perceived Benefits and Caveats

Martina Ziefle, Julian Halbey, Sylvia Kowalewski
2016 Proceedings of the International Conference on Internet of Things and Big Data  
One of the major challenges of the ongoing digitalization and the ubiquitous usage of pervasive computing in all fields of our lives is to steer a sensible balance between benefits and drawbacks of using the Internet and to implement an appropriate data handling when using digital media. The broad availability of data, in line with the enormous velocity of information retrieval, is open to abuse and malpractice, with privacy threats as the most serious barrier. The consumers and their attitudes
more » ... and behaviors when using the Internet play an important role in the discussion about privacy protection. The aim of the current study was to analyze Internet usage behaviors and users' willingness to share their data when using digital services and social network sites. In a two step empirical approach, we first explore users' perceptions of privacy in the context of Internet usage and social network sites by means of a focus group approach. In a second step, a quantitative study was carried out. Using a conjoint measurement approach, user scenarios were created from combinations of different levels of anonymization extent, data type, and benefits from sharing the data. The respondents' task was to decide under which conditions they would be willing to share their data. 80 volunteers (50,6% women) between 14 and 60 years of age participated in the conjoint study. Ziefle, M., Halbey, J. and Kowalewski, S. Users' Willingness to Share Data on the Internet: Perceived Benefits and Caveats.
doi:10.5220/0005897402550265 dblp:conf/iotbd/ZiefleHK16 fatcat:6yzthkk6q5fbfb25dxziqs4l4y