Privacy‐Enhancing Factors and Consumer Concerns: The Moderating Effects of the General Data Protection Regulation

Abstract Privacy is a fundamental right, with humans often wanting to keep their information private. Technological advancements are now challenging this right by reducing our control and creating enhanced privacy risks. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a law introduced to protect this right. The aim of this paper is to analyse how privacy‐enhancing factors can influence consumer privacy concerns and whether these have been affected by consumer beliefs relating to the GDPR. This paper examines the influence of four privacy‐enhancing factors (i.e. organizational trust, perceived personalization value, perceived consumer control and data transparency), which mostly have personality or attitude‐like traits, and the GDPR as a moderating variable. Data were collected from 1154 respondents residing in European Union countries. Results reveal that personalization value has a significant negative relationship with privacy concerns, while consumer control shares a significant positive relationship with privacy concerns. Organizational trust and data transparency did not have a significant effect on privacy concerns. The relationship between the privacy‐enhancing factors and privacy concerns was not moderated by consumer belief in the GDPR. Implications and recommendations are provided to indicate which privacy‐enhancing factors should be chosen to reduce privacy concerns and to highlight the role of the GDPR in moderating these relationships. Ultimately, the study's findings provide useful insights for firms operating online in Europe and marketers aiming to reduce their consumers’ privacy concerns.