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Research on online user privacy shows that empirical evidence on how privacy literacy relates to users' information privacy empowerment is missing. To fill this gap, this paper investigated the respective influence of two primary dimensions of online privacy literacy – namely declarative and procedural knowledge – on online users' information privacy empowerment.

An empirical analysis is conducted using a dataset collected in Europe. This survey was conducted in 2019 among 27,524 representative respondents of the European population.

The main results show that users' procedural knowledge is positively linked to users' privacy empowerment. The relationship between users' declarative knowledge and users' privacy empowerment is partially supported. While greater awareness about firms and organizations practices in terms of data collections and further uses conditions was found to be significantly associated with increased users' privacy empowerment, unpredictably, results revealed that the awareness about the GDPR and user’s privacy empowerment are negatively associated. The empirical findings reveal also that greater online privacy literacy is associated with heightened users' information privacy empowerment.

While few advanced studies made systematic efforts to measure changes occurred on websites since the GDPR enforcement, it remains unclear, however, how individuals perceive, understand and apply the GDPR rights/guarantees and their likelihood to strengthen users' information privacy control. Therefore, this paper contributes empirically to understanding how online users' privacy literacy shaped by both users' declarative and procedural knowledge is likely to affect users' information privacy empowerment. The study empirically investigates the effectiveness of the GDPR in raising users' information privacy empowerment from user-based perspective. Results stress the importance of greater transparency of data tracking and processing decisions made by online businesses and services to strengthen users' control over information privacy. Study findings also put emphasis on the crucial need for more educational efforts to raise users' awareness about the GDPR rights/guarantees related to data protection. Empirical findings also show that users who are more likely to adopt self-protective approaches to reinforce personal data privacy are more likely to perceive greater control over personal data. A broad implication of this finding for practitioners and E-businesses stresses the need for empowering users with adequate privacy protection tools to ensure more confidential transactions.

This study aims to empirically analyse the influence mechanism of perceived interactivity in real estate APP which affects consumers' psychological well-being. With the growing application of human–machine interaction in real estate APP, it is crucial to utilize human–machine interaction to stimulate perceived interactivity between humans and machines to positively impact consumers' psychological well-being and sustainable development of real estate APP. However, it is unclear whether perceived interactivity improves consumers' psychological well-being.

This study proposes and examines a theoretical model grounded in the perceived interactivity theory, considers the relationship between perceived interactivity and consumers' psychological well-being and explores the mediating effect of perceived value and the moderating role of privacy concerns. It takes real estate APP as the research object, analyses the data of 568 consumer samples collected through questionnaires and then employs structural equation modelling to explore and examine the proposed theoretical model of this study.

The findings are that perceived interactivity (i.e. human–human interaction and human–information interaction) positively influences perceived value, which in turn affects psychological well-being, and that perceived value partially mediates the effect of perceived interaction on psychological well-being. More important findings are that privacy concerns not only negatively moderate human–information interaction on perceived value, but also negatively moderate the indirect effects of human–information interaction on users' psychological well-being through perceived value.

This study expands the context on perceived interaction and psychological well-being in the field of real estate APP, validating the mediating role and boundary conditions of perceived interactivity created by human–machine interaction on consumers' psychological well-being, and suggesting positive implications for practitioners exploring human–machine interaction technologies to improve the perceived interaction between humans and machines and thus enhance consumer psychological well-being and span sustainable development of real estate APP.

The authors argue that privacy is integral to the well-being of consumers and an essential component in not only corporate social responsibility (CSR) but what they term uniquely as social media responsibility (SMR). A conceptual framework is proposed that delineates the privacy issues companies should pay attention to in artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled social media environments.

The authors review literature on privacy issues in social media and AI in the academic and practitioner literatures. Based on the review, arguments focus on the need for an SMR framework, proposing responsible use of consumer data that is attentive to consumers' privacy concerns.

Implications from the framework are a path forward for social media companies to treat consumer data more fairly in this new environment. The framework has implications for companies to reduce potential harms to consumers and consider addressing their power and responsibility. With social media and AI transforming consumer behavior so profoundly, there are a variety of short- and long-term social implications.

Since AI tools are becoming integral to social media company activities, this research addresses the changing responsibilities social media companies have in securing consumers' data and enabling consumers the agency to protect their privacy effectively. The authors propose an SMR framework based on CSR research and AI tools employed by social media companies.

Based on the cognition–affect–conation pattern, this study explores the factors that affect the intention to use facial recognition services (FRS). The study adopts the driving factor perspective to examine how network externalities influence FRS use intention through the mediating role of satisfaction and the barrier factor perspective to analyze how perceived privacy risk affects FRS use intention through the mediating role of privacy cynicism.

The data collected from 478 Chinese FRS users are analyzed via partial least squares-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The study produces the following results. (1) FRS use intention is motivated directly by the positive affective factor of satisfaction and the negative affective factor of privacy cynicism. (2) Satisfaction is affected by cognitive factors related to network externalities. Perceived complementarity and perceived compatibility, two indirect network externalities, positively affect satisfaction, whereas perceived critical mass, a direct network externality, does not significantly affect satisfaction. In addition, perceived privacy risk generates privacy cynicism. (3) Resistance to change positively moderates the relationship between privacy cynicism and intention to use FRS.

This study extends knowledge on people's use of FRS by exploring affect- and cognitive-based factors and finding that the affect-based factors (satisfaction and privacy cynicism) play fully mediating roles in the relationship between the cognitive-based factors and use intention. This study also expands the cognitive boundaries of FRS use by exploring the functional condition between affect-based factors and use intention, that is, the moderating role of resistance to use.

Social engineering is crucial in today’s digital landscape. As technology advances, malicious individuals exploit human judgment and trust. This study explores how age, education and occupation affect individuals’ awareness, skills and perceptions of social engineering.

A quantitative research approach was used to survey a diverse demographic of Egyptian society. The survey was conducted in February 2023, and the participants were sourced from various Egyptian social media pages covering different topics. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including independent samples t-test and ANOVA, to compare awareness and skills across different groups.

The study revealed that younger individuals and those with higher education tend to research social engineering more frequently. Males display a higher level of awareness but score lower in terms of social and psychological consequences as well as types of attacks when compared to females. The type of attack cannot be predicted based on age. Higher education is linked to greater awareness and ability to defend against attacks. Different occupations have varying levels of awareness, skills, and psychosocial consequences. The study emphasizes the importance of increasing awareness, education and implementing cybersecurity measures.

This study’s originality lies in its focus on diverse Egyptian demographics, innovative recruitment via social media, comprehensive exploration of variables, statistical rigor, practical insights for cybersecurity education and diversity in educational and occupational backgrounds.

This study aims to investigate the connection between digital literacy and women’s empowerment in the rural Himachal Pradesh. It explores how improved digital skills contribute to increased empowerment among women with a specific focus on the role of education in enhancing digital literacy.

This study included 250 rural participants who completed structured questionnaires. Analytical tools, including independent-sample t-tests and partial least squares structural equation modeling, were applied to the data to gain insights into the relationship between digital literacy and women’s empowerment.

This study revealed a significant positive link between digital literacy and women’s empowerment in the rural Himachal Pradesh context. Education has emerged as a key factor that influences women’s digital skills and empowerment levels.

This research adds novelty by examining the digital literacy–women’s empowerment nexus in rural Himachal Pradesh and emphasizing the impact of education. The combination of statistical methods offers a robust approach to understanding this relationship and underscores the importance of digital inclusion and education for gender equality and women’s progress.

This study aims to explore the spillover effects of data breaches from a consumer perspective in the e-commerce context. Specifically, we investigate how an online retailer’s data breach affects consumers’ privacy risk perceptions of competing firms, and further how it affects shopping intention for the competitors. We also examine how the privacy risk contagion effect varies depending on the characteristics of competitors and their competitive responses.

We conducted two scenario-based experiments with surveys. To assess the spillover effects and the moderating effects, we employed an analysis of covariance. We also performed bootstrapping-based mediation analyses using the PROCESS macro.

We find evidence for the privacy risk contagion effect and demonstrate that it negatively influences consumers’ shopping intention for a competing firm. We also find that a competitor’s cybersecurity message is effective in avoiding the privacy risk contagion effect and the competitor even benefits from it.

While previous studies have examined the impacts of data breaches on customer perceptions of the breached firm, our study focuses on customer perceptions of the non-breached firms. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to provide empirical evidence for the negative spillover effects of a data breach from a consumer perspective. More importantly, this study empirically demonstrates that the non-breached competitor’s competitive response is effective in preventing unintended negative spillover in the context of the data breach.

This study aims to propose an innovative model that integrates variables and examines the influence of internet usage expertise, perceived risk and attitude toward information control on privacy concerns (PC) and, consequently, in consumers’ willingness to disclose personal information online. The authors also propose to test the mediation role of trust between PCs and willingness to disclose information. Trust is not a predictor of PC but a causal mechanism – considering that the focus is to understand consumers’ attitudes and behavior regarding the virtual environment (not context-specific) (Martin, 2018).

The authors developed a survey questionnaire based on the constructs that compose the proposed model to collect data from 864 respondents. The survey questionnaire included the following scales: internet usage expertise from Ohanian (1990); perceived risk, attitude toward information control, trust and willingness to disclose personal information online from Malhotra et al. (2004); and PC from Castañeda and Montoro (2007). All items were measured on a Likert seven-point scale (1 = totally disagree; 7 = totally agree). To obtain Westin’s attitudinal categories toward privacy, respondents answered Westin’s three-item privacy index. For data analysis, the authors applied covariance-based structural equation modeling.

First, the proposed model explains the drivers of consumers’ disposition to provide personal information at a level that surpasses specific contexts (Martin, 2018), bringing the analysis to consumers’ level and considering their general perceptions toward data privacy. Second, the findings provide inputs to propose a better definition of Westin’s attitudinal categories toward privacy, which used to be defined only by individuals’ information privacy perception. Consumers’ perceptions about their abilities in using the internet, the risks, their beliefs toward information control and trust also help to delimitate and distinguish the fundamentalists, the pragmatics and the unconcerned.

Some limitations weigh the theoretical and practical implications of this study. The sample size of pragmatic and unconcerned respondents was substantially smaller than that of fundamentalists. It might be explained by applying Westin’s self-report index to classify the groups according to their score regarding PCs. Most individuals affirm having a great concern for their data privacy but still provide online information for the benefit of personalization – known as the privacy paradox (Zeng et al., 2021). It leads to another limitation of this research, given the lack of measures that classify respondents by considering their actual behavior toward privacy.

PC emerges as an important predictor of consumer trust and willingness to disclose their data online, and trust also influences this disposition. Managers need to implement actions that effectively reduce consumers’ concerns about privacy and increase their trust in the company – e.g. adopting a clear and transparent policy on how the data collected is stored, treated, protected and used to benefit the consumer. Regarding the perception of risk, if managers convince consumers that the data collected on the internet is protected, they tend to be less concerned about privacy.

The results suggest different aspects influencing the willingness to disclose personal information online, including different responses considering consumers’ PCs. Through their policies and legislation, the authors understand that governments must be attentive to this aspect, establishing regulations that protect consumers’ data in the virtual environment. In addition to regulatory policies, education campaigns can be carried out for both consumers and managers to raise the discussion about privacy and the availability of information in the online environment, demonstrating the importance of protecting personal data to benefit the government, consumers and organizations.

Although there is increasing research on consumers’ privacy, studies have not considered their attitudinal classifications – high, moderate and low concern – as moderators of willingness to disclose information online. Researchers have also increased attention to the antecedents of PCs and disclosure of information but overlooked possible mechanisms that explain the relationship between them.

Increasing incidents of privacy invasion on social networking sites (SNS) are intensifying the concerns among stakeholders about the misuse of personal data. However, there seems to be limited research on exploring the impact of specific privacy concerns on users’ intention to engage in various privacy protection behaviors. This study aims to examine the role of social privacy concerns, institutional privacy concerns and privacy self-efficacy as antecedents of privacy protection–related control activities intention among young adults active on SNS.

Data collected from 284 young adults active on SNS was analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling using Smart PLS.

The results indicate that institutional privacy concerns, social privacy concerns and privacy self-efficacy positively influence the control activities intention of SNS users. The extent of privacy self-efficacy and privacy protection-related control activities intention differs among users based on gender.

This study is limited to a population of young adults in the age group of 18–25 years.

The findings of this study form the basis for specific recommendations addressing the different types of privacy concerns experienced by social media users, promoting responsible privacy control behaviors on online platforms and discouraging the possible misuse of information by third parties.

This study validates a theoretical framework that can contribute to future investigations concerning the use of SNS. The study findings form the basis for a set of practical recommendations for policymakers, SNS platforms and users.

Online advertising becomes an essential tool to reach the target audience. One of the most widely used strategies is re-targeting. Firstly, this study explores the impact of ethics, privacy and ads' perceived benefits (ad effectiveness and ad relevance) on consumers' attitudes toward online advertising. Secondly, the study investigates the mediating effect of attitudes toward re-targeting online advertising on consumers' purchase intentions. Finally, the study investigates the moderating effect of the perceived ethicality of re-targeting online advertising on consumers' purchase intentions.

Participants (n = 307) were recruited through an online survey platform (MTurk) in the USA. The sample consisted of 65% male and 35% female respondents. The majority are aged 25–34 years, followed by 35–44 years (20%), 45–54 years (14%), 18–24 years (8%) and 55 years and older (6%).

The results show that ad effectiveness and ad relevance influenced consumers' attitudes toward re-targeting. This study shows that consumers are willing to trade their privacy for better search quality. Moreover, perceptions toward the ethicality of re-targeting ads moderated the relationship between consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions.

This study will make several contributions. First, the study will extend the consequential theory in the context of online advertising. Second, the study will assist companies in using re-targeting strategies. The results will reveal which factor is the most important factor impacting consumers' attitudes toward re-targeting strategies.

This is one of the first few papers investigating consumers' perceptions of the ethicality of re-targeting online advertising.