Purpose

Research on online user privacy shows that empirical evidence on how privacy literacy relates to users' information privacy empowerment is missing. To fill this gap, this paper investigated the respective influence of two primary dimensions of online privacy literacy – namely declarative and procedural knowledge – on online users' information privacy empowerment.

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical analysis is conducted using a dataset collected in Europe. This survey was conducted in 2019 among 27,524 representative respondents of the European population.

Findings

The main results show that users' procedural knowledge is positively linked to users' privacy empowerment. The relationship between users' declarative knowledge and users' privacy empowerment is partially supported. While greater awareness about firms and organizations practices in terms of data collections and further uses conditions was found to be significantly associated with increased users' privacy empowerment, unpredictably, results revealed that the awareness about the GDPR and user’s privacy empowerment are negatively associated. The empirical findings reveal also that greater online privacy literacy is associated with heightened users' information privacy empowerment.

Originality/value

While few advanced studies made systematic efforts to measure changes occurred on websites since the GDPR enforcement, it remains unclear, however, how individuals perceive, understand and apply the GDPR rights/guarantees and their likelihood to strengthen users' information privacy control. Therefore, this paper contributes empirically to understanding how online users' privacy literacy shaped by both users' declarative and procedural knowledge is likely to affect users' information privacy empowerment. The study empirically investigates the effectiveness of the GDPR in raising users' information privacy empowerment from user-based perspective. Results stress the importance of greater transparency of data tracking and processing decisions made by online businesses and services to strengthen users' control over information privacy. Study findings also put emphasis on the crucial need for more educational efforts to raise users' awareness about the GDPR rights/guarantees related to data protection. Empirical findings also show that users who are more likely to adopt self-protective approaches to reinforce personal data privacy are more likely to perceive greater control over personal data. A broad implication of this finding for practitioners and E-businesses stresses the need for empowering users with adequate privacy protection tools to ensure more confidential transactions.

中文翻译：

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网络隐私素养与用户信息隐私赋权：以欧洲GDPR为例

目的

对在线用户隐私的研究表明，缺乏关于隐私素养与用户信息隐私授权之间关系的经验证据。为了填补这一空白，本文研究了网络隐私素养的两个主要维度——即声明性知识和程序性知识——各自对网络用户信息隐私赋权的影响。

设计/方法论/途径

使用在欧洲收集的数据集进行实证分析。这项调查于 2019 年在欧洲人口的 27,524 名代表性受访者中进行。

发现

主要结果表明，用户的程序知识与用户的隐私赋权呈正相关。用户的陈述性知识与用户的隐私赋权之间的关系得到部分支持。虽然人们发现，对公司和组织在数据收集和进一步使用条件方面的做法的更高认识与用户隐私授权的增加显着相关，但不可预测的是，结果显示对 GDPR 的认识与用户隐私授权呈负相关。实证研究结果还表明，更高的在线隐私素养与增强的用户信息隐私权相关。

原创性/价值

尽管很少有高级研究系统地努力衡量自 GDPR 实施以来网站发生的变化，但目前尚不清楚个人如何看待、理解和应用 GDPR 权利/保障以及他们加强用户信息隐私控制的可能性。因此，本文有助于从实证角度理解由用户的陈述性知识和程序性知识塑造的在线用户的隐私素养如何影响用户的信息隐私赋权。本研究从基于用户的角度实证考察了GDPR在提高用户信息隐私赋权方面的有效性。结果强调了提高在线企业和服务的数据跟踪和处理决策透明度的重要性，以加强用户对信息隐私的控制。研究结果还强调迫切需要开展更多教育工作，以提高用户对与数据保护相关的 GDPR 权利/保证的认识。实证研究结果还表明，更有可能采取自我保护方法来加强个人数据隐私的用户更有可能感知到对个人数据有更大的控制权。这一发现对从业者和电子商务的广泛影响强调了为用户提供足够的隐私保护工具的必要性，以确保更保密的交易。