Keywords: New sources of information on public opinion and the use of social media to voice public opinion

Online political engagement is increasing, and such engagement often involves privacy concerns regarding internet users’ information. Information privacy concerns affect users’ online activities, such as their privacy protection , e-shopping and location-sharing behaviors. However, while such privacy concerns are commonly studied within e-commercial and social-networking contexts, in which information privacy is a commodity controlled by companies, they are rarely studied within political contexts, in which information privacy is a human right and governments, not companies, control personal information. Whether factors affecting privacy concerns within e-commercial as well as social-networking contexts work in a distinct context remains unknown.

This study aimed to examine significant e-commercial and social-networking predictors of information privacy in a political context. Moreover, it aimed to examine whether context matters and makes a difference when studying privacy concerns. It laid a foundation for future studies of privacy concerns regarding predictors of political activities on the Internet.

Internet users’ political-participation experience and perceptions of censorship were used to predict privacy concerns, and trust in the government was predicted to be a moderator of information privacy. Data from 457 Chinese residents in Guangdong Province were used, with demographics, internet skills and privacy protection skills being used as control variables. Since governmental regulations on the internet do not vary by area in China, the samples in this study were representative of all netizens in China.

This study found that individuals with high levels of perceived censorship have more privacy concerns, similar to the situations within e-commercial and social-networking contexts, and that perceptions of controlled information lead to privacy concerns. Moreover, trust is significant in online trades and communication; trust in the government moderates the relationship between perceived censorship and privacy concerns. As perceived censorship increases and government trust decreases, levels of privacy concern increase, especially for those with low levels of government trust. At high levels of perceived censorship, respondents with low, average, or high levels’ trust in government show similar amount of privacy concerns. Privacy concerns of users with high government trust barely change as perceived censorship increases.

This study provided an Asian perspective on the topic and showed that internet users consider their political environment when estimating their online privacy. The significant relationship found between political-participation experience and privacy concerns was not supported by data, as the study predicted, and may be attributed to low political participation in China. However, similar studies found relationships between customers’ experience and privacy concerns. Future studies should reexamine other countries with the model in this study. Furthermore, future studies can use this study’s research to examine whether privacy concerns within political contexts are significant predictors of users’ online political activities.