English

An Analysis of Personal Information Privacy Concerns Using Q-Methodology

Computers and Society 2016-06-14 v1

Abstract

Information privacy has gained increased attention in recent years. This paper focuses on a particular aspect of privacy, i.e., personal information privacy. In this paper a conceptual framework is developed based Westin's theory of Personal Information Privacy (PIP). Concourse theory and Q-methodology was used alongside the literature and the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 to develop a Q-sort questionnaire. The resulting 29 statements were then sorted by 12 students (majoring in IS Security). The results indicate that for some, privacy priorities may be stable across contexts, and for others this differs, suggesting that current views of privacy (e.g. Westin's theory) may need revising for the modern digital age. The Q-sort methodology also identified three types, each representing distinct collective perspectives on personal information privacy. These types are discussed along with implications and suggestions for future research.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1606.03547,
  title  = {An Analysis of Personal Information Privacy Concerns Using Q-Methodology},
  author = {Gregg Martin and Hritik Gupta and Stephen Wingreen and Annette Mills},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.03547},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

ISBN# 978-0-646-95337-3 Presented at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2015 (arXiv:1605.01032)

R2 v1 2026-06-22T14:23:02.654Z