Cross-contextual analysis of the effects of vertical and horizontal privacy perceptions on willingness to disclose personal information on the internet

Bartol, Jošt (author), Vehovar, Vasja (author), Petrovčič, Andraž (author)

This study investigates whether the distinction between vertical (institutional) and horizontal (social) privacy is a valuable approach for comparing the antecedents of willingness to disclose personal information (WTD) across online contexts. We focus on e-commerce, social network sites, and instant messaging. Following the dual privacy calculus, we examine three factors of WTD, namely privacy concerns, perceived benefits, and perceived privacy control, in terms of both vertical and horizontal privacy. We develop an explanatory model and hypothesize about cross-contextual differences in the effects of vertical and horizontal privacy perceptions on WTD. The model and hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling and the generalized order-restricted information criterion approximation on data from 1,666 internet users from Slovenia. The results support the model, while the hypothesized cross-contextual differences are partially supported. This study shows that the distinction between vertical and horizontal privacy is a fruitful approach for cross-contextual analyzes of WTD.

• Language: English
• Keywords: dual privacy calculus, online context, survey, vertical and horizontal privacy, willingness to disclose information
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences; FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 478-491
• Numbering: Vol. 42, no. 1
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169582
• UDC: 342.7:004
• ISSN on article: 1044-7318
• DOI: 10.1080/10447318.2025.2508310
• COBISS.SI-ID: 238357507
• Publication date in RUL: 05.06.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of human-computer interaction
• Shortened title: Int. j. hum.-comput. interact.
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1044-7318
• COBISS.SI-ID: 683029

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
• Description: A creative commons license that bans commercial use, but the users don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: dvojni izračun zasebnosti, spletni kontekst, anketa, vertikalna in horizontalna zasebnost, pripravljenost za razkritje informacij, analiza podatkov, zasebnost, zaznavanje, osebni podatki