Sharing and storage behavior via cloud computing: Security and privacy in research and practice

Cloud computing services (CCS) has altered information sharing and storage behavior. This study investigates this behavior and explores the paradox between industry reports and the academic CCS adoption literature. The majority of the academic literature shows that security and privacy beliefs are the major hindrances to wide adoption of CCS whilst multiple recent industrial reports state that security and privacy issues are no longer impediments to the use of CCS. The extensive sharing and storage of personal information among CCS regardless of any security and privacy concerns allows us to speculate about this paradox and provided insight for developing a cloud computing usage model. The posited model explores the influence of CCS main hindrances; that is, perceived security and perceived privacy, compared to the main determinants of technology adoption. The data was collected from 129 working professionals using a survey-based methodology. Contrary to the academic literature, the obtained results confirmed the hypotheses that cloud security and privacy concerns are not significant influences on information sharing and storage behavior. Peers influence was found a significant determinant of the behavior. The study contributes to the information systems and cloud computing literature and supports that the technology is perceived as able to protect user information. The analysis of the developed model provides multiple implications for researchers in academia and industry. Published by Elsevier Ltd.