Does the cloud have a silver lining? Privacy concerns and perceived risk in cloud technology adoption

Cloud technology has become a part of our daily lives. With increasing frequency, services and products are available only online, and to obtain them, the user often must disclose sensitive and personal information. Thus, online users often face a dilemma: whether to accept the risks of sharing personal information online in exchange for the particular services or products, or to forego the desired services or products. In this paper, we explore the concepts of privacy concern, perceived risk and trust, and present a behavioral model incorporating these key elements as predictor and moderator variables influencing a user’s ultimate adoption / use decision. Our proposed model integrates these factors with elements of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Technology Adoption Model. We conducted a pilot study that validates a part of the model, and concluded the paper with discussion of the future work