정보 프라이버시 염려가 SNS 사용자간의 상호작용성에 미치는 영향

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify user's behaviors of social network services(SNS) at an user's level. This study decides variables such as information privacy concern, information privacy risk, information privacy protective response, and interaction among SNS users and tries to find how variables affect each other. To do this, this study designed a new research model for the purpose and performed survey, focusing on SNS users who are over twenty years old. Total 272 responses have been analyzed. The findings are as followed: First, collection and awareness of information privacy concern have positive effects on information privacy protective response. In other words, users always aware uncertainty or risk that their personal information may be abused. Second, collection and control of information privacy concern have positive effects on information privacy risks. This result indicates that the power to manage user's personal information and influence of control still belong to a SNS company, rather than users. Third, information privacy risks have positive effects on information privacy protective response. It means that users take direct and indirect protective actions to protect personal information when they aware that there are privacy exposure risks. Fourth, information privacy risks and information privacy protective response have negative effects on interaction among users. There is less interaction among users who show higher tendency to protect their personal information. Fifth, collection and control of information privacy concern have negative effects on interaction among users. People who have higher tendency to protect their personal information makes less participation in interaction among users. Based on the results of this empirical study, protection measures for users information can be proposed at an individual level as below. First, SNS users should be more prudent when making open their information. Over the SNS, people voluntarily make open their personal information to build a sense of fellowship, a sense of kinship and a sense of intimacy with other people so that they may have their social desires satisfied. However, they should realize that not only personal identification information they enter when joining SNS, such as their names and addresses, but also various other kinds of information they post for themselves can be their personal information. Accordingly, they should recognize they make responsible choices during the process of making open their personal information, and they should be more careful to make prudent and rational choices. Second, SNS users should respect other people's personal information. Since SNS users are basically personal information providers, but they also read other people's personal information, every single individual can be either a personal information collector or a personal information infringer. Therefore, it is required to make a code of ethics for SNS users to realize that searching and leaking other people's personal information is a social behavior absolutely different from building a bond of sympathy with other people with the same tastes by acquiring information about their tastes and interest. Moreover, as SNS features in making open a great deal of personal information about individuals' tastes and interest, SNS users should recognize there always exists a risk of infringing other people's privacy over the SNS.

Key Word: information privacy concern, information privacy risk, information privacy protective response, interaction among users