Why Do People Disclose Other People’s Private Information? An Others-centric Calculus Perspective

Privacy calculus theory has been primarily self-centric. It suggests that individuals consider the benefits and risks occurring to themselves while sharing their own personal information. However, in an interdependent online environment, individuals might disclose information pertaining to other stakeholders. In such situations it can be speculated that people might also be able to deliberate on privacy benefits and risks occurring to others. Thus, it is essential to add an others-centric calculus perspective to existing views. In the present study, we intend to examine this idea by designing an online experiment and recruiting individuals to experience a mock social media platform. By exploring if participants would provide the platform with a family member’s personal information and it is predicted by their perspective taking on others’ risks and benefits, we aim to validate the others-centric privacy calculus perspective. This will extend the current literature on private information disclosure in the IS community.