Escaping the digital panopticon? Longitudinal effects of dataveillance salience shocks on privacy attitudes and inhibited behaviors

Abstract Using internet technologies exposes individuals to constant surveillance by companies and other actors. Perceptions of constant surveillance—termed “dataveillance”—are theorized to induce chilling effects (i.e., inhibiting legal and legitimate online activities) posing risks to individuals and societies. In this preregistered longitudinal 3-wave experiment (N = 774), we investigate whether news articles addressing constant online surveillance induce feelings of dataveillance and behavioral inhibitions. Moreover, we extend theoretical notions of dataveillance by examining whether perceived dataveillance relates to other factors that drive privacy behaviors—privacy resignation and critical privacy literacy. Results of Bayesian random-effects within–between models indicate that perceived dataveillance is positively associated with inhibited behaviors, resignation, and literacy. However, these relations only pertain to the between-person level as the within-person associations are possibly too small to be meaningful. Critical privacy literacy might be central for privacy behaviors as we find both between- and within-person associations with self-inhibition.