What decision-making process do mHealth users go through when faced with privacy disclosure behaviors? A dual trade-off perspective

Purpose

This paper proposes that the trade-off between medical benefits and privacy concerns among mHealth users extends to their disclosure intentions, manifested as individuals simultaneously holding intentions to tend to disclose in the near future and to reduce disclosure in the distant future. Consequently, this paper aims to explore the privacy decision-making process of mHealth users from the perspective of a dual trade-off.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper constructs the model using the privacy calculus theory and the antecedent-privacy concern-outcome framework. It employs the construal level theory to evaluate the impact of privacy calculus on two types of disclosure intentions. The study empirically tests the model using a data sample of 386 mHealth users.

Findings

The results indicate that perceived benefits positively affect both near-future and distant-future disclosure intentions. In contrast, perceived risks just negatively affect distant-future disclosure intention. Additionally, perceived benefits, near-future and distant-future disclosure intentions positively affect disclosure behavior. The findings also reveal that privacy management perception positively affects perceived benefits. Personalized services and privacy invasion experience positively affect perceived benefits and risks, while trust negatively affects perceived risks.

Originality/value

This paper considers the trade-off in the privacy calculus phase as the first trade-off. On this basis, this trade-off will extend to the disclosure intention. The individuals’ two times of trade-offs between privacy concerns and medical benefits constitute the dual trade-off perspective. This paper first uses this perspective to explore the privacy decision-making process of mHealth users. This paper employs the construal level theory to effectively evaluate the impact of privacy calculus on both disclosure intentions in mHealth, extending the theory’s applicability. Moreover, we introduce antecedents of privacy calculus from the perspectives of platform, society, and individuals, enhancing the study’s realism. The research findings provide a basis for mHealth platforms to better cater to users’ privacy needs.