The Perceived Impact of Government Regulation in Reducing Online Privacy Concern

Bruno Škrinjarić (), Jelena Budak () and Edo Rajh

No 1803, Working Papers from The Institute of Economics, Zagreb

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of regulation as an antecedent of online privacy concern. The aim is to investigate if and how perceived effectiveness of government regulation affects internet users’ concern for their privacy in the online environment. Existing research shows that perceived effectiveness and enforcement of regulatory policies reduce online privacy concern; however, it does not explain what factors influence this relationship. This research fills the gap by analyzing different perceptions of the existing country legislation and government effort to protect online privacy in the context of socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, computer anxiety, individual desire to maintain control of personal information, as well as intensity and diversity of online activities. The empirical analysis is conducted on a large sample of internet users in Croatia. The dependent variable in the regression model is online privacy concern and the model is tested with OLS and ordered probit estimation. The results confirm that perceived effectiveness of government regulation reduces online privacy concern whereas computer anxiety has a major positive impact on online privacy concern. These findings might be useful for national policy-makers and for business strategies in the context of the GDPR regulation coming in force in 2018.

Keywords: regulation; data protection; online privacy concern; Croatia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 K2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2018-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict, nep-law and nep-pay
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