Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Privacy and Self-Disclosure Online Project studied the links between privacy and self-disclosure and contains three key studies:

Study 1: automated interviews with 530 internet users questioned about their privacy concerns and protective behaviours. This is estimated to be the first study published that used an automated 'bot' (or robot) to interview people using an instant messaging client.

Study 2: 562 people were asked to disclose personal information via a registration form at Time 1, and then completed privacy attitude and behaviour measures at Time 2. The dataset contains both parts, measuring their trust in the requester of the information and perceived privacy. Privacy was also experimentally manipulated at Time 1.

Study 3: identity cards and privacy attitudes. 1,143 people were experimentally allocated to one of three possible implementations of ID cards in the UK, and their attitudes pre- and post-implementation measured. The dataset also contains their privacy attitudes.

Further information about the project, including publications, may be found on the ESRC Privacy and Self-Disclosure Online Project grant award web page.


Main Topics:

The main topics included: privacy-related concerns and behaviours; privacy measures and self-disclosure using questions on sensitive topics such as income and ethnicity; attitudes towards ID cards.