Information privacy policies: The effects of policy characteristics and online experience

Careful design of information privacy policies is one significant means to induce providing personal information. This research takes three design elements - length, visibility, and specificity - and tests their effectiveness to address information sensitivity, measuring perceived importance and relevance of the policy to decisions to share personal information. The experiment results show that visibility and specificity takes priority. Furthermore, high information sensitivity conditions induce higher perceptions of importance and relevance. Research implications suggest that managers should consider maximizing the benefits of these policy characteristics to induce consumers to read the policy and make it a significant consideration in sharing personal information.