“Seeking Privacy Makes Me Feel Bad?”: An Exploratory Study Examining Emotional Impact on Use of Privacy-Enhancing Features

With the increasing prevalence of privacy invasions and data breaches, more and more users have been seeking protection for their online privacy, which makes privacy-enhancing features and technologies more important than ever. However, these features and technologies are still not widely adopted by users. In the privacy literature, there seems to be an assumption that online users’ privacy behaviors are based on rational decision-making. However, previous research has shown that users’ decision-making involves not only rational thoughts but also emotions, which play an important role. To explore that unknown territory, this empirical study focuses on human emotions and examines their impact on users’ adoption of privacy-enhancing features. Our study design is based on two theoretical frameworks: feelings-as-information theory and the Technology Acceptance Model. We used private browsing as a case study and conducted an online survey experiment to investigate what types of emotions are elicited in users by private browsing mode and how these emotions affect their acceptance of private browsing. Interestingly, we found that the interface design of private browsing mode provokes both positive and negative emotions in users. Also, these elicited emotions influence users’ behavioral intentions. Based on these results, we propose design recommendations for privacy-enhancing features.