PRIVACY AND TRUST IN SOCIAL MEDIA: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF USERS' WILLINGNESS TO SHARE PERSONAL INFORMATION ONLINE

Social networks have become a major source of information and entertainment for modern consumers. Whether we talk about individual users or companies, the numbers of those who create social media accounts have grown overwhelmingly. Studies show that over 82% of worldwide Internet users have at least one account on a social media website and they spend approximately 25% of their time surfing social networks, a 10% increase from 2010 (Rapp, Beitelspacher, Grewal, Hughes, 2013). The same source indicates that over corporate accounts have increased with 88.20% at the same time, with about half used on a daily basis. About 50% of social media accounts have their profile status set on private, a fact that sparked scientific debates and research over topics such as personal information disclosure, confidentiality, invasion of personal space and trust. Our paper proposes an empirical model that relies on constructs such as trust, perceived risks and perceived benefits of information disclosure, risk aversion and willingness of sharing personal information to investigate users’ intention to continue disclosing personal information on social networking sites. Acknowledgement: The authors of this paper would like to thank the UEFISCDI (Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development, and Innovation) for the support provided in conducting this research and the dissemination of its results, through the IDEI 27/2011 research grant.