Challenges Posed by Locational Data Privacy

Abstract

With the growth of innovative positioning technologies, research into individuals’ behavioral challenges posed by location-based services has become increasingly popular in recent years. Scholars from various social sciences and management disciplines have attempted to address such challenges in order to understand and mitigate concerns for locational-data privacy. In view of the broad applicability of location-based services, we conduct a review of eight prominent IS journals to investigate and understand individuals’ behavioral challenges in using such services. Our review reveals that perception of individuals’ locational-data privacy is constantly influenced by their respective social norms, social reality, and cultural background as well as their current geographical or locational factor. In light of this finding, we outline possible directions and opportunities for further IS research around three philosophical approaches- “positivist”, “interpretivist”, and “critical”- with the aim of enriching our discussion of how and why individuals’ social reality and cultural factors influence their perception of locational- data privacy.