A typology and model of privacy- and security-concerned users’ attitudes towards digital footprints and consequent influence on their social media adaptation

How users with privacy and security concerns engage with social media in light of their perceptions of the risk associated with their digital footprint is a critical question for research and practice. Using a mixed methods approach, we examined the privacy- and security-related concerns of social media users and their subsequent adaptation behaviors in two studies. The first study, a qualitative inquiry, helped us develop a typology of four groups of social media users with respect to their privacy- and security-related attitudes characterized as careless, carefree, conscious, and cautious. We developed a conceptual model comprised of eight hypotheses based on a qualitative study that captured the relationship between privacy- and security-related attitudes and social media adaptation. The second study, a quantitative study, tested the model and revealed that users with careless and carefree attitudes are likely to explore social media to maximize benefits and exploit certain applications, while cautious users are likely to avoid using social media as much as possible. However, the findings are inconclusive for conscious users’ adaptation. This could be due to their systematic and informed decision-making, which is likely to have contextual variability. We contribute by offering a clear and coherent typology and a model of privacy- and security-concerned users’ attitudes and social media adaptation.