Research On User Privacy Concern And Its Influencing Factors In Artificial Intelligence Environment

With recent development of artificial intelligence(AI)technology,it has been widely used in many fields and has been embedded in every aspect of people’s life.In an AI environment,people do not know how their private information is collected,how it is used,and whether it is used for purposes other than the purpose for which it is collected,which raises privacy concerns among users.When users have concerns about personal privacy,they may refuse to disclose private information for privacy protection,which affects the adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence applications.Therefore,it is necessary to study users’ privacy concerns in the artificial intelligence environment.The concept of privacy concerns is multidimensional and changes as technology evolves.In the context of artificial intelligence,technology,government,society and other factors all affect users’ privacy concerns,which changes the concept of users’ privacy concerns.Therefore,it is necessary to redefine users’ privacy concerns in the artificial intelligence environment and determine its composition and dimension.In addition,it is helpful to understand the sources of user privacy concerns by exploring factors that influence user privacy concerns in the artificial intelligence environment.In view of the lack of empirical research on user privacy concerns in artificial intelligence environment,it is necessary to further explore the concept of users’ privacy concerns in artificial intelligence environment,and discuss its influencing factors and influencing mechanism.Based on this,this study firstly applied the grounded theory approach,collected data through semi-structured interviews,and coded the obtained information at three levels to scientifically refine the dimensions of users’ privacy concerns in the AI environment develop and the preliminary model of their influencing factors,and supplemented the preliminary model with elaboration Likelihood model to formally construct a model of the influencing factors of users’ privacy concerns in the AI environment.The model was then tested empirically.Since there is currently no established scale available for users’ privacy concerns in the artificial intelligence environment,a scale for user privacy concerns in the artificial intelligence environment was developed based on results from the grounded theory and existing literature,and then a questionnaire was designed accordingly.A total of 8 variables were measured,including privacy policy,information sensitivity,trust,past experience,privacy orientation,social norms,privacy concerns and disclosure behavior,and 412 questionnaires were collected through an online survey.Finally,Smartpls3.0 software was used for reliability and validity test and to test the proposed hypotheses.This research finds that users’ privacy concerns in AI environment are divided into three aspects:information management,interaction management,and awareness,among which information management is subdivided into information feature management and information boundary management;interaction management involves information life cycle,i.e.,collection,storage,flow and dissemination,secondary use and forgetting,and control;awareness is divided into individual’s own privacy awareness,individual’s awareness of corporate privacy behavior/policy,and individual’s Awareness of privacy-related laws and regulations.In addition,it was found that users’ privacy concerns in the AI environment are influenced by both central and peripheral cues.The central cues include privacy policy and information sensitivity,with privacy policy having a negative impact on privacy concerns and information sensitivity having a positive impact on privacy concerns;the peripheral cues include trust,past experience,privacy preferences,and social norms,with trust having a negative impact on privacy concerns and social norms,past experience,and privacy preferences having a positive impact on privacy concerns.Trust had a negative effect on privacy concerns,and social norms,past experiences,and privacy preferences had a positive effect on privacy concerns.However,this study found no negative effect of privacy concerns on individual’s disclosure behavior,which may be explained by the existence of the privacy paradox phenomenon.This study develops the concept of users’privacy concerns in the artificial intelligence environment,which makes up for the lack of studies on the dimension of users’ privacy concerns in the artificial intelligence environment.The model of influencing factors of users’ privacy concerns in artificial intelligence environment is constructed and the influencing mechanism of influencing factors is identified,which enriches the research of user privacy concerns in artificial intelligence environment.The results of the study help companies or governments to understand people’s privacy concerns and their influencing factors,and help them to identify the underlying mechanisms of such influencing factors in order to take effective measures to alleviate users’privacy concerns and improve privacy protection behaviors.