The Effects of Privacy and Data Breaches on Consumers’ Online Self-Disclosure, Protection Behavior, and Message Valence

Abstract

This study investigates Facebook users’ perceived benefits and risks on their self-disclosure, likelihood of protection behavior and message valence before, during and after its data breach scandal. A framework based on Protection Motivation Theory was used to test these relationships with trust as a mediator. The model was tested using data from three national consumer panel surveys. The results show that while there is temporal invariance in the model structure, Facebook users are more cautious of the risks and are more likely to engage in protection behavior due to the data breach. However, users are also more likely to weigh the benefits of social media higher than the perceived risks, which supports the consumer privacy paradox. Implications from this study such as consumer protection, privacy laws, private and public policies, and regulations are discussed.