Journal article
Cultural factors and the role of privacy concerns in acceptance of government surveillance
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Vol.71(9), pp.1129-1142
2020
Abstract
Though there is a tension between citizens' privacy concerns and their acceptance of government surveillance, there is little systematic research in this space and less still in a cross‐cultural context. We address the research gap by modeling the factors that drive public acceptance of government surveillance, and by exploring the influence of national culture. The research involved an online survey of 242 Australian and Sri Lankan residents. Data were analyzed using partial least squares, revealing that privacy concerns around initial collection of citizens' data influenced levels of acceptance of surveillance in Australia but not Sri Lanka, whereas concerns about secondary use of data did not influence levels of acceptance in either country. These findings suggest that respondents conflate surveillance with the collection of data and may not consider subsequent secondary use. We also investigate cultural differences, finding that societal collectivism and power distance significantly affect the strength of the relationships between privacy concerns and acceptance of surveillance, on the one hand, and adoption of privacy protections, on the other. Our research also considers the role of trust in government, and perceived need for surveillance. Findings are discussed with their implications for theory and practice.
Details
- Title
- Cultural factors and the role of privacy concerns in acceptance of government surveillance
- Authors/Creators
- N. Thompson (Author/Creator) - Curtin UniversityT. McGill (Author/Creator) - Murdoch UniversityA. Bunn (Author/Creator) - Curtin UniversityR. Alexander (Author/Creator) - University of Jaffna
- Publication Details
- Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Vol.71(9), pp.1129-1142
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Identifiers
- 991005541515607891
- Copyright
- © 2020 Association for Information Science and Technology
- Murdoch Affiliation
- Information Technology, Mathematics and Statistics
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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InCites Highlights
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Citation topics
- 6 Social Sciences
- 6.185 Communication
- 6.185.1644 Digital Privacy
- Web Of Science research areas
- Computer Science, Information Systems
- Information Science & Library Science
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general