Mamonov, S., Koufaris, M. (2016). The Impact of Exposure to News about Electronic Government Surveillance on Concerns about Government Intrusion, Privacy Self- Efficacy, and Privacy Protective Behaviour.

From Digital Culture & Society

Mamonov, Stanislav., Koufaris, Marios. (2016). The impact of exposure to news about electronic government surveillance on concerns about government intrusion, privacy self-efficacy, and privacy protective behavior. Journal of Information Privacy and Security, 12 (2), 56-67. doi:10.1080/15536548.2016.1163026 Retrieved from [1]

Alissa Reid

The article The impact of exposure to news about electronic government surveillance on concerns about government intrusion, privacy self-efficacy, and privacy protective behaviour, by Mamonov and Koufaris, investigates the effects of news exposure regarding government surveillance, in addition to the effects of general-government news exposure. With a focus on privacy concerns, these authors aim to fill in research gaps within a government surveillance context. The authors make it clear that there has not been much research conducted on behaviours and concerns, in relation to how people are reacting to knowing about government surveillance. Edward Snowden’s revelations have changed the industry immensely, and there is new research illustrating this, but there is not much discussion on the impact on consumer behaviour. With society now having a better understanding of government surveillance, there are significant behaviour changes to be expected. Mamonov and Koufaris are leading the way into this specific area of the privacy and surveillance sector.

The authors conducted experimental research on 442 participants by exposing them to government news, and testing to see what behaviour arises out of concerns regarding government intrusion, privacy self-efficacy and actions taken to protect oneself. Theories such as coping theory and information theory were utilized as a means to further understand participants being studied. This study features three different hypotheses: exposure to government surveillance news is positively related to concerns about government intrusion, exposure to government surveillance news is negatively related to privacy self-efficacy, and exposure to government surveillance news is positively related to password strength. Hypothesis one and two were supported, with the authors stating “…repeated exposure to information about government surveillance programs can undermine general subjects’ belief about their ability to protect their private information” (p. 61). The research depicts the third hypothesis to be inaccurate, as they found the subjects used weaker passwords when exposed to government surveillance program news stories. Mamonov and Koufaris provide logical reasons for why this happened, such as the concept of learned helplessness. This research provides evidence that exposure to government surveillance does have an impact on citizens, manifesting in concerns and behavioural changes.

Overall, Mamonov and Koufaris articulate a strong argument as a result of conducting research that has not been done before. They provide context to the important issue of exposure to news about electronic government surveillance, in addition to making suggestions, and having a solid research method. The authors state, “…little research is available to shed light on how awareness of government surveillance affects technology users’ concerns, beliefs and behaviours… we take the first steps to address this gap in research” (p. 56). This is an important area to research, especially with the rapid growth of technology and how the government can continue to create additional methods to monitor citizens. This research provides a better understand of the far-reaching impact that electronic government surveillance has on citizens. Filling in research gaps is essential to scholarship, as it allows for other academics to further explore the topic and potential impacts that the original researchers may not have discovered. Mamonov and Koufaris illustrate how the research findings many have the potential to impact further information disclosure, and expand on privacy-protective behaviours within research regarding information systems. Their research also depicts a need for further research, “…a need to examine actual security policy compliance behaviours to assess the predictions of the protection motivation theory in the organizational computer security domain” (p. 63). As no research project can examine the full-scope of the industry, providing a suggestion for other researchers to investigate a certain topic is beneficial for research in this field. In addition to providing new research on an important issue, Mamonov and Koufaris conducted strong research through the use of an excellent research approach. Through the use of a literature search, these researchers provided a clear background on the topic that aids in the understanding the full scope of past literature conducted on this topic. The research model aimed to avoid bias as much as possible by randomly assigning participants to two different groups, where they were measured for a variety of concerns using previously published scales. Utilizing theories to provide better context also helps to strengthen their argument. Two different models were used to analyze the results, which were measurement and structural. By doing this, the data collected was thoroughly examined and coded in a way that ensured as much effectiveness as possible. Another strength is having two out of three hypothesis supported, thus illustrating that the researchers are realistic, extremely knowledge, and conducted effective research. In terms of the invalidated hypothesis, they provided extensive reasoning for the reasons they discovered made it wrong. By doing this, it further illustrates how strong this research is.

The weaknesses evident in this project are the sample size utilized, and a lack of explanation within certain areas of the paper. As this research is regarding participants opinions and behaviour, it is essential to have a large sample size to provide enough data to get a common understanding. The research project enlisted 483 participants, but the useable responses left them with 442. This is not a large enough sample to get an accurate depiction, and in addition to this, the sample size’s demographics were not equal. Out of the 442, 60.2% were male, which is not an even representation of gender. In addition to the weak sample size, the authors also did not provide enough explanation of the exact contents of what was being studied in relation to the news being used for exposure. The article simply explained if the news articles were about government surveillance or basic government news, but there was no explanation of what exactly was included. There also was no reasoning for how, what, or why, the certain news articles were chosen for the study. The reasons for inclusion and exclusion of what was being studied is essential in order to provide a full explanation to the readers.

In summation, Mamonov and Koufaris provide new and important research to the field of privacy and surveillance. This research illustrates there is an impact on citizens’ concerns regarding the governments monitoring practices, and behavioural changes made to aid in privacy. By exposing participants to government surveillance and general government news, the researchers were able to fill an existing gap in this research field.