Development and Validation of the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S)

The need for privacy has been gaining importance in various disciplines and areas of communication, including computer-mediated, interpersonal, and health communication. These disciplines require reliable measurement of the need for privacy across different contexts. We propose a theoretical concept of the need for privacy as a personality trait and develop a multi-dimensional scale. In Study 1, we developed and tested the Need for Privacy Scale (NFP-S) using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (German internet users, n1 = 3,278; n2 = 1,226). The results support a second-order model with three first-order factors, i.e., informational, psychological, and physical need for privacy; social need for privacy was identified to be inherent to the three other dimensions and as such not a dimension on its own. The 12-item scale was validated with regard to loneliness, online privacy concerns, sex, online data protection and online information disclosure. In Study 2, we confirmed the factorial structure with a representative sample of N = 1,000 German internet users. We validated the scale with a self-assessment of the need for privacy, offline and online privacy concerns, online privacy literacy, social media usage, online data protection and social media self-disclosure, and sociodemographics.