The Dark Side of Privacy Nudging – An Experimental Study in the Context of a Digital Work Environment

Abstract

In digital environments, individuals tend to share disproportionally more information than in face-to-face communication. Critically, disclosing personal information can yield risks such as unwanted monitoring or discrimination. Privacy nudging is a promising approach to get users to disclose less personal information. In this work, we tested two nudges corresponding to the issue of personal privacy. A framing nudge conveys an intensive message and a social nudge provides social cues. To empirically test these nudges, we evaluated an experiment with 223 participants. The results indicate that privacy nudges negatively influence information disclosure behavior. The social nudge was perceived as a threat. The framing nudge directly affected negative emotions and the social nudge indirectly. Perceived threat and negative emotions have a significant negative effect on information disclosure intention. With this research, we contribute to the discussion of what drives privacy nudge effectiveness and influences information disclosure behavior in digital work environments.