Journal of Business Ethics 111 (4):519-539 (2012)
Abstract |
A growing body of theory has focused on privacy as being contextually defined, where individuals have highly particularized judgments about the appropriateness of what, why, how, and to whom information flows within a specific context. Such a social contract understanding of privacy could produce more practical guidance for organizations and managers who have employees, users, and future customers all with possibly different conceptions of privacy across contexts. However, this theoretical suggestion, while intuitively appealing, has not been empirically examined. This study validates a social contract approach to privacy by examining whether and how privacy norms vary across communities and contractors. The findings from this theoretical examination support the use of contractual business ethics to understand privacy in research and in practice. As predicted, insiders to a community had significantly different understandings of privacy norms as compared to outsiders. In addition, all respondents held different privacy norms across hypothetical contexts, thereby suggesting privacy norms are contextually understood within a particular community of individuals. The findings support two conclusions. First, individuals hold different privacy norms without necessarily having diminished expectations of privacy. Individuals differed on the factors they considered important in calculating privacy expectations, yet all groups had robust privacy expectations across contexts. Second, outsiders have difficulty in understanding the privacy norms of a particular community. For managers and scholars, this renders privacy expectations more difficult to identify at a distance or in deductive research. The findings speak directly to the needs of organizations to manage a diverse set of privacy issues across stakeholder groups
|
Keywords | Privacy Social contract theory Contractual business ethics Factorial vignette methodology Survey |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
ISBN(s) | |
DOI | 10.1007/s10551-012-1215-8 |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad.Michael Walzer - 1995 - Philosophy 70 (273):472-475.
Towards a Theory of Privacy in the Information Age.James H. Moor - 1997 - Acm Sigcas Computers and Society 27 (3):27-32.
A Critical Perspective of Integrative Social Contracts Theory: Recurring Criticisms and Next Generation Research Topics.Thomas W. Dunfee - 2006 - Journal of Business Ethics 68 (3):303-328.
Scenarios in Business Ethics Research: Review, Critical Assessment, and Recommendations.James Weber - 1992 - Business Ethics Quarterly 2 (2):137-160.
Four Challenges for a Theory of Informational Privacy.Luciano Floridi - 2006 - Ethics and Information Technology 8 (3):109–119.
View all 42 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Understanding Privacy Online: Development of a Social Contract Approach to Privacy.Kirsten Martin - 2016 - Journal of Business Ethics 137 (3):551-569.
Perceived Privacy Violation: Exploring the Malleability of Privacy Expectations.Scott A. Wright & Guang-Xin Xie - 2019 - Journal of Business Ethics 156 (1):123-140.
Information Relevance Model of Customized Privacy for IoT.Wei Zhou & Selwyn Piramuthu - 2015 - Journal of Business Ethics 131 (1):19-30.
Information Technology and Privacy: Conceptual Muddles or Privacy Vacuums? [REVIEW]Kirsten Martin - 2012 - Ethics and Information Technology 14 (4):267-284.
How Unbecoming of You: Online Experiments Uncovering Gender Biases in Perceptions of Ridesharing Performance.Brad Greenwood, Idris Adjerid, Corey M. Angst & Nathan L. Meikle - 2022 - Journal of Business Ethics 175 (3):499-518.
View all 6 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Online Privacy as a Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Study.Irene Pollach - 2011 - Business Ethics, the Environment and Responsibility 20 (1):88-102.
Biobank Research and the Right to Privacy.Lars Øystein Ursin - 2008 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 29 (4):267-285.
Contextual Gaps: Privacy Issues on Facebook.Gordon Hull, Heather Richter Lipford & Celine Latulipe - 2011 - Ethics and Information Technology 13 (4):289-302.
Four Challenges for a Theory of Informational Privacy.Luciano Floridi - 2006 - Ethics and Information Technology 8 (3):109–119.
Toward an Approach to Privacy in Public: Challenges of Information Technology.Helen Nissenbaum - 1997 - Ethics and Behavior 7 (3):207 – 219.
The Moral Intensity of Privacy: An Empirical Study of Webmasters' Attitudes. [REVIEW]Thomas R. Shaw - 2003 - Journal of Business Ethics 46 (4):301 - 318.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2012-03-31
Total views
32 ( #353,954 of 2,498,147 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #427,476 of 2,498,147 )
2012-03-31
Total views
32 ( #353,954 of 2,498,147 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #427,476 of 2,498,147 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads