The role of perceived risk and security level in building trust in e-government solutions

Increasingly, social and economic development is determined by the technologies, including ICT. Technologic development can be seen, on the one hand, as an opportunity and, on the other hand, as a threat to the socio-economic development. The substitution of human-to-human relationships with human-to-machine or machine-to-machine connections is becoming increasingly more controversial, thus providing a basis for scientific deliberations. Trust, which is the cornerstone of all interpersonal relationships, is frequently mentioned in the context of interactions between humans and technologies, becoming the object of scientific interest. One of the growing ICT areas is services provided by public administration (e-government) enabling citizens to deal with official matters via the Internet. Considering a relatively low level of e-government technology adoption in Poland, compared to other European countries, it is justified to search for reasons for such a state of affairs. Trust seems to have an important place among many factors determining the development of e-government technology. In technology acceptance models, among the determinants of trust in technology, especially in the context of personal data security, an important role is played by the perceived level of risk and security associated with the use of solutions. This article aimed to identify if the perceived risk and security of e-government technology determine the level of trust in the technology and future intentions of its adoption. Based on the literature review, the authors hypothesised that trust in e-government technology and the future intention of its use could be directly shaped by perceived risk and security. An electronic questionnaire was used to collect research data from Polish citizens. All in all, 1,067 forms were filled. Results received using the structural equation modelling confirmed that the most important factor shaping trust in technology was a perceived level of security. Results also confirmed a positive impact of trust on the future intended use