Antecedents to Privacy Concern over Ubiquitous Service in China

Abstract

A success with online or mobile business in the domestic market does not guarantee another success in a foreign country. Information privacy is a major concern to netizens or mobile users and becomes an obstacle to adopting a new service based on Internet and mobile technologies. If a company wants to export its business into an overseas market, the company needs to understand the extent of information privacy concerns by users in a foreign country and what would affect their privacy concerns. This paper focused on information privacy concerns when using ubiquitous service that could bring significant benefits to its users, and empirically examined the factors which could affect privacy concerns by users in China. The results showed that both propensity to privacy and privacy awareness had a positive effect on privacy concerns, while perceived justice had a negative effect. However, prior negative experience and perceived effectiveness of regulation had no effect on privacy concerns. Theoretical and practical implications for ubiquitous service are discussed.