The willingness to disclose personal information: Trade-off between privacy concerns and benefits

Purpose: Customer privacy and security are major concerns. Online firms worldwide collect customer data for various reasons. This study aims to investigate factors that motivate and hinder a customer’s willingness to disclose personal information (WTD) to online firms on e-commerce websites. Design/methodology/approach: Based on an extensive literature review, three sets of factors have been identified. These sets of factors are privacy concern, perceived disclosure benefits and privacy assurances. It is hypothesized that privacy concerns negatively affect the disclosure of personal information, while the perceived benefits of disclosure have positive effects. Privacy assurances would positively affect information disclosure and attenuate the negative effect of privacy concerns on the disclosure of personal information. The authors gathered data from 253 online customers in Saudi Arabia. Findings: The results indicate that perceived disclosure benefits and privacy concerns have a significant positive and negative relationship, respectively, with WTD online. Privacy assurances had neither a direct nor a moderating effect on information disclosure. Research limitations/implications: The findings will inform online firms about the factors that prevent or motivate customers to disclose personal information. Originality/value: The effect of privacy concerns and benefits on personal information disclosure are not fully understood in Saudi Arabia. This study reveals more insights into the specific factors that make online customers reluctant or motivated to disclose their personal information.