Privacy by Region: Evaluation Online Users' Privacy Perceptions by Geographical Region

This study investigates online users' privacy perceptions based on their geographical regions. We administered an online survey to assess three psychological aspects of privacy perceptions including perceptions of privacy boundary, personal disposition of trust, and behavioral preferences for information sharing. Our results reveal regional differences in users' privacy perceptions and identify three sharing patterns among different regions. We found that regional differences can be explained by social structure and cultural value. For instance, users in North America show more individualistic tendency in sharing preferences; and users in Asia exhibit more collectivist value in their perceptions of information control. We illustrate how regional differences can be employed into system design and propose a set of suggestions for enhancing the design of privacy-preserving systems. We believe this is the first study investigating privacy perceptions from a regional/continent point of view. Therefore, our results provide a new perspective for designing global privacy enhancing systems that include regional considerations.