Online behavior changes: Resilience to online privacy violation

Škrinjarić, Bruno and Budak, Jelena and Slijepčević, Sunčana and Rajh, Edo (2025) Online behavior changes: Resilience to online privacy violation. ACTA OECONOMICA, 75 (2). pp. 268-298. ISSN 0001-6373

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Abstract

The digital population and online activities are growing globally, while online privacy breaches remain a concern. These violations may affect users' future online behavior depending on their resilience. This research develops and tests a model of internet users' resilience to online privacy violations using the survey data collected by computer-assisted telephone interviewing on a sample of adult Internet users in Croatia who have experienced (at least subjectively) the incident of violating their online privacy in the past three years (1,000 respondents, 18–86 years of age, mean age of 43 years, standard deviation of 15 years). The PLS-SEM technique was used to determine the antecedents of resilience and its impact on online behavior. Results show that resilience is influenced by personality traits: extroverted and open individuals are more resilient, while neuroticism reduces resilience. Users are concerned about online privacy or anxious about digitalization, and those who apply privacy protection measures tend to be less resilient. More resilient individuals view privacy violations as less severe and maintain or increase their online activities. The general recommendation that stems from our findings is to improve the digital literacy of the internet population in parallel to the ever-increasing level and range of online activities.

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