Predicting user concerns about online privacy in Hong Kong

Empirical studies on people's online privacy concerns have largely been conducted in the West. The global threat of privacy violations on the Internet calls for similar studies to be done in non-Western regions. To fill this void, the current study develops a path model to investigate the influence of people's Internet use-related factors, their beliefs in the right to privacy, and psychological need for privacy on Hong Kong people's concerns about online privacy. Survey responses from 332 university students were analyzed. Results from this study show that people's belief in the right to privacy was the most important predictor of their online privacy concerns. It also significantly mediated the relationship between people's psychological need for privacy and their concerns with privacy violations online. Moreover, while frequent use of the Internet may increase concerns about online privacy issues, Internet use diversity may actually reduce such worries. The final model, well supported by the observed data, successfully explained 25% of the variability in user concerns about online privacy.