How do Habit and Privacy Awareness Shape Privacy Decisions?

Technology companies can benefit from users’ habitual technology use as a reinforcement of technology continuance. Such habitual behavior can be amplified through personalized service experiences, for which companies need to request their users’ data. However, in the presence of strong habit, users might agree to privacy updates and decide to continue using services without weighing privacy related risks against expected benefits. To date, privacy research has given little attention to technology habit. We aim to fill this research gap by drawing on the privacy calculus theory, contextual privacy awareness (CPA), and prior studies on habit in technology continuance research. We conduct an experiment with mobile app users and find that habit does indeed influence privacy decisions. Further, we find that CPA makes users pay more attention to risks involved with a privacy update. Our framework illuminates the relevance of habit in privacy decision making for users and app providers