IDENTIFICATION OF TOPIC

Tentative title: Privacy concerns of people in view of advancement in information technology.

Research objective: The objective of the research is to assess the technological advancements in
the field of internet and effect it has on the privacy of people as well as to determine if individuals
are really concerned about it.
Research questions
1. In what ways has the privacy of people been affected as a result of the usage of internet
and mobile phones?
2. Are people really concerned about these privacy issues?
3. Which kind of people are really facing privacy issues and which kind of people are least
affected by it?
Identification and brief explanation of theory that will be used
Privacy Calculus Theory: This theory is derived from utility maximization theory and suggests
that an individual’s intention to disclose information is based on a calculus of behavior in which
potentially competing factors are weighed in light of possible outcomes. A popular form of
behavioral calculus is the risk-benefit analysis, where there exist trade-offs between expected risks
and expected benefits, and in this case these trade-offs would be considered within a specific
information disclosure context.
Need for this research
The existing literatures very well describe the phenomenon of Privacy Paradox existing in our
society and have successfully been able to discover the reason behind the existence of such paradox
up to an extent.
However, it’s extremely important to find which kind of people are truly facing these privacy
issues as well as getting affected by them. Hence this research work will focus on trying to answer
the above stated questions and draw implications of the same as well.
Brief explanation of Proposed Methodology
The research work will initiate through an online questionnaire that would primarily be focused
on research questions stated above. The data collected from these questionnaires could then be
used in research methodologies such as Cluster analysis or conjoint analysis.
 Cluster analysis: Clusters of individuals really concerned about the privacy issues can be
formed and further analysis can be performed in order to fulfill the need for the research
work.
 Conjoint analysis: The questionnaires can carry privacy as one of the attributes and using
conjoint analysis the above stated research questions can subsequently be acknowledged.
Intended Contribution
The following research work intends to make the following contributions:
i. Learning the various effects of privacy issues faced by Individuals accessing the
information technology.
ii. Examining the understanding as well as concerns that Individuals possess of these privacy
issues.
iii. Discovering the kind of individuals who are really being affected or actually care about the
privacy issues when accessing the internet.
Originality
The research work will be able to differentiate the individuals in accordance of the effects, that the
privacy issues created due to advancement in information technology, have on them. This
differentiation could thus be on the basis of age, gender, income or occupation of these individuals.
References

1. Becker, M. (2019). Privacy in the digital age: comparing and contrasting individual versus

social approaches towards privacy. Ethics and Information Technology, 21(4), 307–317.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-019-09508-z

2. Li, Y. (2012). Theories in online information privacy research: A critical review and an

integrated framework. Decision Support Systems, 54(1), 471–481.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2012.06.010

3. Kokolakis, S. (2017). Privacy attitudes and privacy behavior: A review of current research

on the privacy paradox phenomenon. Computers & Security, 64, 122–134.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2015.07.002

4. Hargittai,E. (2016). “What can I really do?” Explaining the privacy paradox with online

apathy. International journal of communication, 10, 3737-3757.

https://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?cluster=2018781090627817255&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5

&sciodt=0,5