Does privacy awareness matter? A study of voice assistant-related privacy and security concerns

Internet of Things (IoT) and voice assistant (VA) devices and services have become part of our lives. Probably the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the rate of adoption and diffusion of these technologies as individuals had to adjust their lives and create new ways of working. However, despite their enormous utility, e.g. in entertainment, home security, care homes, supply chain, and logistics, they pose security and privacy threats. Thus, users are expected to exhibit behaviours that protect their privacy and ensure their security. However, there exists a privacy paradox, i.e. users’ security and privacy concerns do not reflect in their use and privacy protection behaviours. To contribute to this discussion, this research sets out to investigate the antecedents of concerns. Understanding what creates concerns in users may provide a clue to the privacy paradox. Drawing on the literature, a parsimonious model that relates knowledge, awareness, attitude, and concerns was tested using data from 123 participants. The results show that indeed knowledge leads to awareness but neither awareness nor knowledge engenders concerns in users. Attitude on the other hand is directly related to concerns. These results highlight the complexity and nebulous nature of the virtual world and call for a relook at knowledge and awareness creation programmes and the extension of policies and device-level security to augment the behaviours of users. Other implications for theory, policy, and practice are discussed.