What Do They Want? Motivating Consumers to Disclose Personal Information to Internet Businesses

An increasing number of Internet businesses are seeking consumer information in order to target their products or services at the right consumers. To overcome information privacy, or the desire of consumers to control the disclosure and subsequent use of personal information, Internet businesses need to motivate consumers to voluntarily disclose their personal information. This paper focuses on the issue of information disclosure by consumers. Based on a synthesis of literature from several disciplines, it offers a framework of seven motivators that can induce consumers to disclose their personal information. Through comprehensive conceptual and empirical validation processes, it presents a 32-question instrument to measure these motivators. This instrument can facilitate future efforts at developing theories on information privacy and can help Internet businesses to better understand how best to solicit personal information from consumers. Implications for research and practice are discussed.