The concept of open innovation was introduced by Henry Chesbrough in 2003 and refers to firms' use of inflows and outflows of knowledge to improve innovation processes. The concept has received considerable scholarly attention, but most research has focused on how manufacturing firms can manage inflows of knowledge during their product innovation processes. How outflows of knowledge can be managed by service firms during their innovation processes has until now not received the same scholarly attention. In this chapter, we therefore aim to contribute in filling this knowledge gap by observing an innovation project in tourism during its implementation. The findings suggested that tourism firms reveal different types of knowledge to other tourism firms in non-pecuniary outbound open innovation processes. In this case the knowledge was revealed in joint workshops where several firms participated and in bi-lateral meetings between two firms, and sometimes the knowledge was transferred via consultants or researchers that acted as "knowledge mediators". The findings also suggested that tourism firms decided to reveal knowledge to other firms to improve their image, increase the market size and to sharpen up their own business. Implications for management as well as the need for further research are discussed in the chapter.

In this short paper we describe the implementation of an IoT test-bed in an elementary school. We argue that by adding additional IoT senors to an existing IoT system it is possible to evolve an indoor climate control system into a indoor milieu control system aimed at improving the health and well-being for both pupils and staff who spend their days working in the school environment. Lastly, we call for multidisciplinary action as the domain IoT for health and well-being spans across several different knowledge domains.

We propose a tentative research plan to increase students’ mental health

in elementary schools by implementing Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The

research plan should answer how to support students’ mental health using IoT

solutions and the critical factors influencing testbeds for IoT solutions with the

previously mentioned purpose. Our intended research method is Design Science,

which we plan to use stepwise.

In this paper, we discuss end user requirements that we elicited for the use of malleable signatures in a Cloud-based eHealth scenario. The concept of a malleable signature, which is a privacy enhancing cryptographic scheme that enables the redaction of personal information from signed documents while preserving the validity of the signature, might be counter- intuitive to end users as its functionality does not correspond to the one of a traditional signature scheme. A qualitative study via a series of semi-structured interviews and focus groups has been conducted to understand stakeholders’ opinions and concerns in regards to the possible applications of malleable signatures in the eHealth area, where a medical record is first digitally signed by a doctor and later redacted by the patient in the cloud. Results from this study yielded user requirements such as the need for suitable metaphors and guidelines, usable templates, and clear redaction policies. 

The importance and perception of privacy varies from one context to the other. However, everyone values his or her privacy to a certain extent. The subjectivity of that value, attitudes, and behaviors would depend on different entangling factors. It is important to understand the motivation that influences human behavior, whether to protect or share their information. In this paper, we aim at understanding the boundaries of privacy, factors influencing information sharing behavior including experiences (reciprocities of privacy), and efforts taken to protect one’s data. We collected data using quantitative (survey/quiz) and qualitative means (focus groups). In the survey/quiz, our results showed that intrusion experience and awareness have a significant correlation between sharing of data. Furthermore, our focus groups results yielded details on influencing factors for privacy reciprocities and tradeoffs. We discuss our results in terms of privacy incentives and factors influencing the sharing behavior of their information. Finally, we highlight the complexity of behavior where intrinsic and extrinsic motivations could clash and result in a dilemma such as the privacy paradox phenomenon. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how frontline employee self-disclosure influences consumers’ reciprocal behavior. To investigate the effects of frontline employee self-disclosure, two experiments were conducted with a total sample of 475 participants. The results show that when frontline employees disclose personal information in one-time encounters, they are perceived as less competent and more superficial. The results also show that self-disclosure negatively affects reciprocal behavior, but that this is mediated through liking, competence, superficiality, and satisfaction. These findings suggest that it is not always beneficial for employees to use self-disclosure as a strategy for garnering a consumer's trust or satisfaction, which counters previous research that suggest that disclosure of personal information is a good way to positively influence consumers in the retail environment.

This study concerns the effect that music has on consumer behavior in two different retail contexts during regular opening hours. Two studies were conducted in a field setting with consumers (N=550). Consumers were recruited to answer questions regarding behavioral measures, attitudes, and mood during days when background music was played. The conclusions from the two studies are that music affects consumer behavior, but also that the type of retail store and gender influences both the strength and direction of the effect

This aim of this study is to enhance the understanding of customer behavior and customer experience in the context of city centers and peripheral shopping centers and how the use of digitalized services affects this experience. In this paper we adopt a qualitative approach to explore consumers´ activities when visiting a city and/or a shopping center and the experiences connected to the visit. The study is based on data from 832 (55% female) with a M age = 48 years (range 17-91 years) consumers.

When visiting a city center and/or a shopping center, customers engage with a variety of different touchpoints (Socchi, Hart and Haji, 2016). From a customer perspective these touchpoints create experiences that generates many types of values. In recent years, the mass media has warned for the demise of city and shopping centers commerce. This purported demise is mainly due to the strong growth of e-commerce. To meet this competition, the retail and hospitality industry has developed strategies to create new customer experiences and thus attract customers back to the city center’s physical places. As a consequence of the technical development, companies frequently try to influence customers’ experiences through various digitalized services, where these digitalized service have the potential to improve customer experience by providing superior and personalized services (Roy et al. 2016). The question is what impact such services have on customers’ experiences and how this, in turn, affects the profitability of the retail and hospitality industry as a whole.

In order to shed light on the activities and experiences of visitors to city and shopping centers regular consumers were approach during a regular visit to such an area and asked to answer a few open ended questions.  The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis aims to identify and report on thematic patterns across the sample, which allows researchers to make interpretations of the data that reflect the reported reality of participants (Braun and Clarke, 2006; Hayes, 2000; Ruane and Wallace, 2013).

The preliminary analysis of the data shows a variety of activities and touchpoints when visiting the city and shopping center. Seven themes emerged in our analysis of the participants´ responses: Relationship, Goal fulfillment, Experiences, Physical venue, Milieu, Practical usability and Non-intrusive.

In order to make more sense of the seven themes a model were developed. In this model three of the themes were connected to the customer, two connected to the service provider and the last two connected to digital technology. These three clusters interact in different ways.

The customer cluster contains the themes relationships, goal fulfilment and experiences. The themes in this cluster describe and vivifies the customer. The customer is not just a “shopping robot” jumping from touchpoint to touchpoint along a customer journey. The customer instead is a person with goals to fulfil but at the same time someone who has a great need of relationships on different levels and a person who will and want to experience things.

The service provider cluster contains two themes. One were named physical venue and this is where the service provider, be it a storeowner or a restaurant owner for example, has the most direct control. It is also where the customer will go to fulfil his or her goals. Here the direct contact between customer and service provider can and will take place. The second theme in this cluster were named “milieu”. The milieu can be the space the customer needs to pass in order to get to the physical venue or other factors that the service provider do not have control over (e.g. public spaces and weather)

The third and most interesting cluster concerns the digital technology, named practical usability and non-intrusive. Digitalization is highly interesting when it comes to the relationship between the customer and the service provider. The first theme described the importance of the usefulness of digital technology, and  in regards to digitalization the results indicates that digitalized services mostly fulfill utilitarian needs and works best in functional touchpoints. The theme called non-intrusive describes the relation between the customer and the digital technology. It may be somewhat drastic to talk about a two edged sword but on the one hand digital technology makes life easier and sometimes more joyful and at the same time the technology may disturb goal activities which leads to negative experiences.

These findings is important because it offers help to those managing city and shopping centers in identify touchpoints that need to be digitalized and those who need to be reinforced through social activities This knowledge could also help managers develop strategies to create new customer experience, i.e. create good valuescapes, and thus tease customer back to the city and shopping center´s physical places.

REFERENCES

Braun, V. and Clarke, V., (2006), 'Using thematic analysis in psychology’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2) 77-101

Hayes, N. (2000), Doing Psychological Research, Open University Press, Buckinghamshire.

Ruane, L. and Wallace, E., (2013), 'Generation Y females online: insight from brand narratives', Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16 (3) 315-335

Roy, S. K., Balaji, M. S., Sadeque, S., Nguyen, B., and Mlewar, T. C., (2016), 'Constituents and consequences of smart customer experience in retailing', Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 124 257-270

Stocchi, L., Hart, C., and Haji, I., (2016), 'Understanding the town centre customer experience (TCCE) ', Journal of Marketing Management, 32 (17-18) 1562-1587

Purpose – The research concerns the effect of frontline employees’ averted or direct gaze on consumers’ evaluation of the encounter. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that in normal interactions, a direct or averted gaze affects people’s evaluation of others. The question was whether this finding would hold true in commercial interactions.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted three experiments using a written scenario with a photograph among a total sample of 612 participants.

Findings – This research showed that consumers’ social impression of the frontline employees mediated the effect of the employees’ gazing behaviour on consumers’ emotions and satisfaction with the encounters. The findings also showed that averting gaze had a negative effect on consumers’ first impression of the frontline employee, which affected consumers’ satisfaction with the encounter. The findings also showed that a direct gaze had a negative effect on encounter satisfaction when consumers sought to purchase embarrassing products.

Originality/value – The research demonstrated that the effect of gaze on encounter satisfaction was mediated by the social impression and moderated by consumers’ approach/avoidance motivation.

This paper discusses the approach taken within the PrimeLife project for providing user-friendly privacy policy interfaces for the PrimeLife Policy Language (PPL).We present the requirements, design process and usability testing of the “Send Data?” prototype, a browser extension designed and developed to deal with the powerful features provided by PPL. Our interface introduces the novel features of “on the fly” privacy management, predefined levels of privacy settings, and simplified selectionof anonymous credentials. Results from usability tests showed that users understand and appreciate these features and perceive them as being privacy-friendly, and they are therefore suggested as a good approach towards usable privacy policy display and management. Additionally, we present our lessons learnt in the design process of privacy policy interfaces.

We present a prototype of the user interface of a transparency tool that displays an overview of a user's data disclosures to different online service providers and allows them to access data collected about them stored at the services' sides. We explore one particular type of visualization method consisting of tracing lines that connect a user's disclosed personal attributes to the service to which these attributes have been disclosed. We report on the ongoing iterative process of design of such visualization, the challenges encountered and the possibilities for future improvements.

The use of mobile smart devices for storing sensitive informationand accessing online services is increasing. At the same time, methods for authenticating users into their devices and online services that are not only secure, but also privacy and user-friendly are needed. In this paper, we present our initial explorations of the use of lock pattern dynamics as a secure and user-friendly two-factor authentication method. We developed an application for the Android mobile platform to collect data on the way individuals draw lock patterns on a touchscreen. Using a Random Forest machine learning classier this method achieves an average Equal Error Rate (EER) of approximately 10.39%, meaning that lock patterns biometrics can be used for identifying users towards their device, but could also pose a threat to privacy if the users' biometric information is handled outside their control.

Whereas in real everyday life individuals have an intuitive approach at deciding which information to disseminate to others, in the digital world it becomes difficult to keep control over the information that is distributed to different online services. In this paper we present the design of a user interface for a system that can help users decide which pieces of information to distribute to which type of service providers by allowing them to segregate their information attributes into various personalized profiles. Iterative usability evaluations showed that users understand and appreciate the possibility to segregate information, and revealed possible improvements, implications and limitations of such an interface.

Possible attacks on mobile smart devices demand higher security for applications handling payments or sensitive information. The introduction of a tamper-proof area on future generations of mobile devices, called Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), is being implemented. Before devices with embedded TEEs can be deployed to the public, investigations on usability aspects of Trusted User Interfaces (TUI) are needed. This article describes the process we have followed at gathering requirements, prototyping and testing suitable designs for TUIs in combination with a touch-screen biometric system. At the end, we present relevant findings of a pilot study that we have conducted using an Experience Sampling Method (ESM) as part of our ongoing work.

We investigate the end users’ behaviours and attitudes with regards to the control they place in the personal information that they disclose to cloud storage services. Three controlled experiments were carried out to study the influence in users’ decisions to retain or surrender control over their personal information depending on different factors. The results of these experiments reveal, among other things, the users’ willingness to surrender control over personal information that is perceived as non-sensitive in exchange for valuable rewards, and that users would value the possibility of knowing and controlling the parties who are granted access to their data in the cloud. Based on the results from the experiments we provide implications for the design of end-user tools that can promote transparency and accountability in cloud computing environments.

Background: Digital health interventions, such as personalized SMS coaching, are considered affordable and scalable methods to support healthy lifestyle changes. SMS, or texting, is a readily available service to most people in Sweden, and personalizedSMS coaching has shown great promise in supporting behavior changes.

Objective: This study aims to explore the effectiveness of highly personalized SMS coaching for behavior change according to the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation–Behavior (COM-B) model on a sample of physically inactive adults in a nonprofit fitness organization in Sweden.

Methods: The study used a mixed methods design in which clients acted as their own controls. The participants were clients(n=28) and fitness consultants (n=12). Three types of data were collected: (1) quantitative data at baseline and after the SMS intervention and the waitlist from the clients, (2) qualitative data from semistructured interviews with the fitness consultants, and(3) pseudonymized texting conversations between the fitness consultants and clients.

Results: Overall, the results showed that personalized SMS coaching was effective in supporting the clients’ behavior changes. The quantitative analysis showed how the clients’ capabilities (Cohen d=0.50), opportunities (Cohen d=0.43), and relationship with the fitness consultants (Cohen d=0.51) improved during the SMS intervention in comparison with baseline. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis revealed how personalized texts added value to existing work methods (eg, increasing continuity and flexibility) and how the relationship between the clients and fitness consultants changed during the intervention, which helped motivate the clients.

Conclusions: Personalized SMS coaching is an effective method for supporting healthy behavior changes. The human connection that emerged in this study needs to be further explored to fully understand the effectiveness of a digital health intervention.

This study focuses on how fitness technology services can be designed in order to support the co-creation of motivation to sustain a healthy behavior. The study used an exploratory qualitative design in which we interviewed eight seasoned runners about their running routines and their use of fitness trackers. The result shows that the fitness routines require careful planning and deliberation, and that the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle relies more on what happens between the activities than during said activity. Thus, fitness trackers should focus on feedback that allows users to co-create motivation during intermissions between health promoting behaviors. 

This study explores a user perspective on fitness-trackers and how they are used to maintain healthy behaviors; and how fitness trackers could be designed to better maintain healthy behaviors. A thematic analysis was conducted on the transcriptions from semi-structured interviews with eight seasoned non-professional runners who regularly used fitness trackers in their exercise regime. The main findings are: (a) the maintenance of healthy behaviors rely more on what happens in the intermission – that is, between healthy behaviors – than during the actual behavior itself; and (b), by visualizing the history of healthy behaviors, intermission feedback help motivate the repetition of healthy behavior in a way that mimics broad choice bracketing and behavioral streaks. Thus, fitness-trackers should focus more on the motivational aspects during the intermission between the healthy behaviors rather than encouraging the performance during the target behavior.

In this paper, we present the development and validation of an instrument for measuring users’ gameful experience while using a service. Either intentionally or unintentionally, systems and services are becoming increasingly gamified and having a gameful experience is progressively important for the user’s overall experience of a service. Gamification refers to the transformation of technology to become more game-like, with the intention of evoking similar positive experiences and motivations that games do (the gameful experience) and affecting user behavior. In this study, we used a mixed-methods approach to develop an instrument for measuring the gameful experience. In a first qualitative study, we developed a model of the gameful experience using data from a questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions posed to users of Zombies, Run!, Duolingo, and Nike+ Run Club. In a second study, we developed the instrument and evaluated its dimensionality and psychometric properties using data from users of Zombies, Run! (N = 371). Based on the results of this second study, we further developed the instrument in a third study using data from users of Duolingo (N = 507), in which we repeated the assessment of dimensionality and psychometric properties, this time including confirmation of the model. As a result of this work, we devised GAMEFULQUEST, an instrument that can be used to model and measure an individual user’s gameful experience in systems and services, which can be used for user-adapted gamification and for informing user-modeling research within a gamification context.

The purpose of this study is to understand how gamification contributes to customers’ value creation in a retail context and how this value creation relates to brand engagement. The study builds on a field experiment using a two-group between-subjects design combined with correlational research. The experiment involved 378 participants recruited at a major European sports retailer. Participants were exposed to one of two conditions: one with a gamified activity in a store, and one in which the participants performed the same activity without being exposed to any game elements. The findings show that gamification affects the hedonic value of an activity and that this effect can be partly explained by positive affect. When this hedonic value was compared to the satisfaction with a reward, the hedonic value was found to be a better predictor of continued engagement intention. Finally, gamification through continued engagement intention is positively associated with brand engagement.

This study investigates the effect of gamification on in-store mobile advertisement. More specifically, it investigates the effect of gamification on the inclination to act on offers gained at point of purchase. For this purpose, a field experiment was conducted at a supermarket, where real customers were recruited. Eye tracking, smartphone activity logging and choice were used to investigate the customers’ behaviour. The results reveal that gamification is not always useful for increasing the tendency to act on offers. In fact, engagement in a gamified shopping task is needed; otherwise, the tendency to act on offers might even decrease when gamifying.

This study investigates modes of moving visitors in a tourist location using a location-based service. Two field experiments were conducted at a zoo using real visitors as participants and behavior-based dependent variables. Experiment 1 included 2,618 visitors and investigated whether the amount of rewards, in the form of free spins on a wheel of fortune, would affect the choice to move to this wheel and claim the offered rewards. The choice of using this offer was used as a dependent variable. Experiment 2 included 970 visitors and investigated whether labelling participants with a fitting trait led them to move to a certain location. Geographical data using iBeacon logging was used as the dependent variable. Using chi-square tests for independence, we causally show that both the reward and the label had a positive and significant effect on moving the visitors to the targeted location.

The study objective was to assess if a 3-week intervention with the Somnox sleep robot had effects on symptoms of insomnia, somatic arousal, and/or concurrent symptoms of depression and anxiety in adults with insomnia, compared with a waitlist-control group. The participants (n = 44) were randomized to a 3-week intervention with the sleep robot (n = 22), or to a waitlist-control group (n = 22). The primary outcome measure was the Insomnia Severity Index administered at baseline, mid-intervention, post-intervention and at 1-month follow-up. Secondary outcome measures were the Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Additionally, sleep-onset latency, wake time after sleep onset, total sleep time and sleep efficiency were measured the week prior to and the last week of the intervention, both subjectively with the Consensus Sleep Diary and objectively with wrist actigraphy. Mixed-effects models were used to analyse data. The effect of the sleep robot on the participants' insomnia severity was not statistically significant. The differences between the intervention group and the control group on the measures of arousal, anxiety and depression were also not statistically significant, and neither were the sleep diary and actigraphy variables. In conclusion, a 3-week intervention with daily at-home use of the robot was not found to be an effective method to relieve the symptom burden in adults with insomnia.

Huvudfrågeställningen i denna studie var: Upplever människor i organisationer en informations- och kommunikationsteknikrelaterad stress? Informations- och kommunikationsstress studerades genom en undersökning av användande och upplevelse av olika IKT, t ex stationär telefon, mobiltelefon, e-post, Internet, Intranet, hos ledare och administrativa assistenter i 3 organisationer. Generellt kännetecknas upplevelsen av IKT-användningen av ambivalens. Deltagarna rapporterade i lika hög grad fördelar som nackdelar med teknologin. Generellt fanns ingen IKT-stress. De 3 främsta stresskällorna i koppling till tekniken var: att bli avbruten i arbetet, tidsbrist och teknik som krånglar.

Increasing dependency on digital technologies introduces queries related to well-being–when and how digital technology poses a threat, or when it is the most appreciated by users? People have some expectations before using technology, which sometimes may be met, but there might be a mismatch at other times. Nevertheless, the digitalization of services advances and companies modify existing or produce new technologies that do not satisfy users' demands, putting their well-being at risk. Through an empirical inquiry, the present research explores experiences with technologies to shed more light on the main factors that enrich or diminish technology value and influence well-being. Exploiting the circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic that fast-forwarded technology use and development, an online inquiry was conducted to assess positive and negative experiences of technologies, focusing on the contexts of work, learning, entertainment, information-seeking, and health. The findings from 578 participants indicate that depending on the role of technologybeing a substitute for certain activities or an opportunity to perform them differently–consequences on well-being can more or less follow expectations. The results are discussed in the context of past research and practical implications for, e.g. technology design or managerial changes that could help overcome users' current challenges. 

In a well-functioning digital economy, consumers should be able to make autonomous and informed choices, and companies compete fairly. One of the barriers preventing such well-functioning is dark patterns—designs that mislead users into making specific purchase-related choices. In this research, through a qualitative inquiry (expert interviews), we classify dark patterns based on the harmful ways such designs affect the digital market. Moreover, we analyze data using the behavior change framework and illustrate ways to prevent dark patterns and grant consumers greater protection and autonomy. Our exploratory results outline potential solutions policymakers might apply to improve digital market well-functioning.

In a well-functioning digital economy, consumers should be able to make autonomous and informed choices, and companies compete fairly. One of the barriers preventing such well-functioning is dark patterns—designs that mislead users into making specific purchase-related choices. In this research, through a qualitative inquiry (expert interviews), we classify dark patterns based on the harmful ways such designs affect the digital market. Moreover, we analyze data using the behavior change framework and illustrate ways to prevent dark patterns and grant consumers greater protection and autonomy. Our exploratory results outline potential solutions policymakers might apply to improve digital market well-functioning.

Too often, while interacting with online technologies, we blindly agree to services’ terms and conditions (T&Cs). We often disregard their content—believing it is not worth engaging with the long, hard-to-understand texts. The inconspicuous display of online T&Cs on the user interface (UI) adds to our lack of engagement. Nevertheless, certain information included in T&Cs could help usmake optimal decisions. In this replication research, we investigate this issue in the purchasing context. We confirm and extend previous fndings through an online experiment (N = 987), showing that diferently presented T&Cs (icons, scroll, and cost cue) compared to hyperlinked text affect whether people open them, becoming aware. We also show the efect of decision-making style on the relationship between awareness and satisfaction. We discuss the possible use of these fndings to improve users’ informed decisions. We also highlight problems that diferent designs may pose, potentially increasing the information gap between users and service providers.

Too often, while interacting with online technologies, we blindly agree to services’ terms and conditions (T&Cs). We often disregard their content—believing it is not worth engaging with the long, hard-to-understand texts. The inconspicuous display of online T&Cs on the user interface (UI) adds to our lack of engagement. Nevertheless, certain information included in T&Cs could help usmake optimal decisions. In this replication research, we investigate this issue in the purchasing context. We confirm and extend previous fndings through an online experiment (N = 987), showing that diferently presented T&Cs (icons, scroll, and cost cue) compared to hyperlinked text affect whether people open them, becoming aware. We also show the efect of decision-making style on the relationship between awareness and satisfaction. We discuss the possible use of these fndings to improve users’ informed decisions. We also highlight problems that diferent designs may pose, potentially increasing the information gap between users and service providers.

The popularity of health and well-being applications is on the rise. These applications often collect and process personal and sensitive information about individuals for different purposes. Nonetheless, users’ freedom of choice around protection and sharing may be compromised, for example, by forwarding such information to third parties without user awareness or control, especially with current developments in AI-based complex data processing technologies. Despite the popularity of health and well-being applications, the purpose of sharing and its interplay with trust, privacy concerns, and their antecedents is seldom explored. The present article addresses this gap by conducting an online study (N = 315), which shows that, generally, people’s sharing preferences depend on their trust and privacy concerns. However, the findings indicate potential differences between male and female participants considering sharing information for the greater good, such as scientific research. Our findings are discussed in light of sociocultural and social role theories of prosocial behavior and previous research. Considering the growing interest in building usable infrastructures for data sharing and user empowerment, practical implications for designers and policymakers are highlighted. 

We report preliminary findings from an online study, identifying people’s attitudes toward privacy issues. The results confirm some of the previous research findings regarding demographic and contextual dependencies of privacy perceptions. The research presents a new scale for measuring attitudes to privacy issues that is based on privacy harms. The results suggest that people consider privacy harms in generic and simplified terms, rather than as separated issues suggested in legal research. This research identified major factors that people tend to think of while considering online privacy.

We report preliminary findings from an online study, identifying people’s attitudes toward privacy issues. The results confirm some of the previous research findings regarding demographic and contextual dependencies of privacy perceptions. The research presents a new scale for measuring attitudes to privacy issues that is based on privacy harms. The results suggest that people consider privacy harms in generic and simplified terms, rather than as separated issues suggested in legal research. This research identified major factors that people tend to think of while considering online privacy.

Consenting to digital services’ privacy policies is standard practice. It often occurs at the early stage of interactions with a given service—during the sign-up process. Still, the most common way of acquiring consent from users is through their acknowledgment of policies by ticking a box. Consequently, users consent, mostly blindly, as they are unlikely to review the full text of policies. The current article presents research investigating factors that may impact user interaction with privacy policies, focusing on the underresearched topic of affective states (valence and arousal). The results of an online experiment (N=88) indicate that privacy policy design can elicit specific affective responses and, when accounting for some characteristics of individuals (e.g., personality traits), it can influence users’ attitudes and behaviors. Particularly, the findings show that privacy awareness and willingness to disclose information might be impacted. Additionally, the analysis of collected data suggests significant associations between some personality traits and affective states, as well as a strong relationship between privacy concerns and willingness to disclose information, contradicting the concept of privacy paradox, often discussed in the privacy literature. Moreover, the results of our qualitative inquiry, where the study respondents had a chance to elaborate on their decisions to agree or disagree with the privacy policy by answering an open-ended question, confirm the quantitative findings, and reveal some of the users needs considering the sign-up process.

We all too often must consent to information collection at an early stage of digital interactions, during application sign-up. Paying low attention to privacy policies, we are rarely aware of processing practices. Drawing on multidisciplinary research, we postulate that privacy policies presenting information in a way that triggers affective responses, together with individual characteristics, may influence privacy attitudes. Through an online quasi-experiment (N=88), we investigate how affect, illustration type, personality, and privacy concerns may influence end-users' willingness to disclose information and privacy awareness. Our results partially confirm these assumptions. We found that the affect may have an impact on privacy awareness, and stable psychological factors may influence disclosures. We discuss the applicability of our findings in interface design and in future research.