Information privacy in smart office environments: A cross-cultural study analyzing the willingness of users to share context information

Abstract

This paper presents a cross-cultural study analyzing the willingness of users to share context information in work environments. The focus of the study is on three aspects: the general willingness to provide different types of context information, the acceptance of manual and automated data capturing mechanisms and the identification of personal and cultural differences among users. The results of the study show that potential users are rather reluctant to provide context information, especially if the data is automatically captured by the system, and that the willingness to provide context information differs significantly between user groups with different cultural backgrounds and different degrees of computer knowledge. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.