Communication Privacy Management Theory

Integral Role ◽

Have you ever wondered why a complete stranger sitting next to you on a plane would tell you about a recent cancer diagnosis? Why your parents never disclosed that you were adopted, feeling shocked when you accidently find out as an adult? These and many other actions reflect decisions individuals make about managing their private information. Being aware of how individuals navigate decisions to disclose or protect their private information provides useful insights that aid in the development and sustainability of relationships with others. Given privacy plays an integral role in everyone’s life, knowing more about privacy management is critical. communication privacy management (CPM) theory was first introduced by Sandra Petronio in 2002. CPM is evidence-based and accordingly provides a dependable understanding of how decisions are made to disclose and protect private information. This theory uses plain language to understand privacy management in everyday life. CPM focuses on the relationship people have with each other in communicative contexts, such as face-to-face interactions, on social media, and in dyads or groups. CPM theory is based on a communicative-social behavioral perspective and not necessarily a legal point of view. CPM theory illustrates that privacy is not paradoxical but is sustainable through the process of a privacy management system used in everyday life. The theory of CPM has been employed in a number of contexts shedding light on antecedents, mechanisms, and outcomes of private information management. In addition, a number of researchers across multiple countries, such as the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, and the United States, have used CPM theory in their research investigations. Learning more about the system of private information management allows for a better understanding of how people navigate managing their private information when others are involved. Literature illustrates patterns of privacy management and demonstrates the challenges as well as the positive outcomes of the way individuals regulate their private information.

Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data

Social Media + Society ◽

10.1177/2056305120915618 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 205630512091561

Author(s):

Anatoliy Gruzd ◽

Jenna Jacobson ◽

Elizabeth Dubois

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Private Information ◽

The United States ◽

Management Theory ◽

Privacy Management ◽

Social Media Data ◽

Communication Privacy ◽

Media Data

The article examines whether and how the ever-evolving practice of using social media to screen job applicants may undermine people’s trust in the organizations that are engaging in this practice. Using a survey of 429 participants, we assess whether their comfort level with cybervetting can be explained by the factors outlined by Petronio’s communication privacy management theory: culture, gender, motivation, and risk-benefit ratio. We find that respondents from India are significantly more comfortable with social media screening than those living in the United States. We did not find any gender-based differences in individuals’ comfort with social media screening, which suggests that there may be some consistent set of norms, expectations, or “privacy rules” that apply in the context of employment seeking—irrespective of gender. As a theoretical contribution, we apply the communication privacy management theory to analyze information that is publicly available, which offers a unique extension of the theory that focuses on private information. Importantly, the research suggests that privacy boundaries are not only important when it comes to private information, but also with information that is publicly available on social media. The research identifies that just because social media data are public, does not mean people do not have context-specific and data-specific expectations of privacy.

Managing the virtual boundaries: Online social networks, disclosure, and privacy behaviors

New Media & Society ◽

10.1177/1461444816654465 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 50-67 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Mary Helen Millham ◽

David Atkin

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Private Information ◽

Online Social Networks ◽

Social Networking Sites ◽

Privacy Management ◽

Online Setting ◽

Communication Privacy ◽

Privacy Behaviors

Online social networks are designed to encourage disclosure while also having the ability to disrupt existing privacy boundaries. This study assesses those individuals who are the most active online: “Digital Natives.” The specific focus includes participants’ privacy beliefs; how valuable they believe their personal, private information to be; and what risks they perceive in terms of disclosing this information in a fairly anonymous online setting. A model incorporating these concepts was tested in the context of communication privacy management theory. Study findings suggest that attitudinal measures were stronger predictors of privacy behaviors than were social locators. In particular, support was found for a model positing that if an individual placed a higher premium on their personal, private information, they would then be less inclined to disclose such information while visiting online social networking sites.

Manajemen Privasi Jemaat Ahmadiyah di Kota Semarang

Al-I'lam: Jurnal Komunikasi dan Penyiaran Islam ◽

10.31764/jail.v1i2.230 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 39

Author(s):

Muhammad Syaoki

Keyword(s):

Private Information ◽

Management Theory ◽

Privacy Management ◽

Indirect Communication ◽

Hide Information ◽

Dialectical Process ◽

The Government ◽

Abstrak: Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menggambarkan perilaku komunikasi Jemaat Ahmadiyah dalam posisi mereka sebagai kelompok yang dilarang menyebarkan ajarannya. Dengan menggunakan teori manajemen privasi komunikasi yang diperkenalkan oleh Sandra Petronio, penelitian ini berusaha menjelaskan proses dialektis yang dilakukan oleh jemaat Ahmadiyah di kota Semarang ketika berinteraksi dengan banyak orang dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa Jemaat Ahmadiyah melakukan pembukaan informasi privat dengan komunikasi langsung dan tidak langsung. Jemaat Ahmadiyah melakukan pembukaan informasi privat bertujuan untuk mengklarifikasi kesalahpahaman ghair tentang Ahmadiyah. Jemaat Ahmadiyah kota Semarang cenderung menutup informasi privat mereka kepada keluarga dan teman ketika mereka baru berbai’at. Mereka juga menutup informasi privat kepada orang-orang Muhammadiyah, serta kepada kelompok-kelompok Islam garis keras, seperti FPI, LDII, termasuk juga kader PKS. Tetapi mereka membuka informasi mengenai Ahmadiyah kepada orang-orang dari kalangan NU, dan aparatur pemerintah. Abstract : This research aims to describe the behavior of Ahmadiyyah community in their position as a group that is prohibited from spreading its teachings. Using the communication privacy management theory introduced by Sandra Petronio, this research attempts to explain the dialectical process undertaken by the Ahmadiyah community in the Semarang city while interacting with many people in everyday life. The results of this study indicate that the Ahmadiyyah community conducts the opening of private information with direct and indirect communication. The Ahmadiyah community conducted the opening of private information aimed to clarify misunderstanding about “ghair” of Ahmadiyah. The Ahmadiyah community of Semarang tends to hide their private information from family and friends when they are newly banned. They also hide private informations to Muhammadiyah people, as well as to hard-line Islamic groups, such as FPI, LDII, as well as PKS cadres. But they do not hide information about Ahmadiyyah to people from the NU, and the government apparatus.

Exploring societal-level privacy rules for talking about miscarriage

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships ◽

10.1177/0265407517731828 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 36 (2) ◽

pp. 379-399 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Jennifer J. Bute ◽

Maria Brann ◽

Rachael Hernandez

Keyword(s):

Private Information ◽

Pregnancy Loss ◽

Privacy Management ◽

Social Rules ◽

Disclosure Decisions ◽

Everyday Talk ◽

Societal Level ◽

Micro Level ◽

Communication privacy management (CPM) theory posits that culturally specific understandings of privacy guide how people manage private information in everyday conversations. We use the context of miscarriage to demonstrate how societal-level expectations about (in)appropriate topics of talk converge with micro-level decisions about privacy rules and privacy boundary management. More specifically, we explore how people’s perceptions of broad social rules about the topic of miscarriage influence their disclosure decisions. Based on interviews with 20 couples who have experienced pregnancy loss, we examined how couples described miscarriage as a topic that is bound by societal-level expectations about whether and how this subject should be discussed in interpersonal conversations. Participants reflected on their perceptions of societal-level privacy rules for protecting information about their miscarriage experiences and described how these rules affected their own privacy management decisions. We discuss these findings in terms of CPM’s theoretical tools for linking macro-level discourses to everyday talk.

O—Openings

Communication in Palliative Nursing ◽

10.1093/med/9780190061326.003.0006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 179-213

Author(s):

Elaine Wittenberg ◽

Joy V. Goldsmith ◽

Sandra L. Ragan ◽

Terri Ann Parnell

Keyword(s):

Palliative Care ◽

Family Relationships ◽

Private Information ◽

Privacy Management ◽

Complex Interactions ◽

Hospital To Home ◽

The Impact ◽

Openings offers specific tools to assist the nurse in traversing the challenging yet profoundly rewarding moments of transition that require the clinical practice of intimate openings with the patient/family. Replacing evasion with an opportunity to move into tension and avoidance is essential in helping a patient/family receive palliative care. Observations of tension might be clear indications of a needed transition in care. Complex interactions with patients and families coincide with transitions in care and require intimate and disclosive exchanges among patient/family and nurses. Communication privacy management theory helps us understand more about private information and how that information depends on the relationship people share. Communicating a transition to palliative care from hospital to home or to end-of-life care and hospice requires nurses to address a patient’s/family’s fears and feelings of hopelessness and to provide education about palliative care and its services. Facilitating appropriate access to private health information, creating intimate openings to process transitions in life and care, and understanding the impact of disclosure on patient/family relationships all play an important role.

Communication Privacy Management in Open Adoption Relationships: Negotiating Co-ownership across In-person and Mediated Communication

Communication Research ◽

10.1177/0093650221998474 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 009365022199847

Author(s):

Colleen Warner Colaner ◽

Alyssa L. Bish ◽

Maria Butauski ◽

Alexie Hays ◽

Haley Kranstuber Horstman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Private Information ◽

Perceived Risk ◽

Adoptive Parents ◽

Privacy Management ◽

Open Adoption ◽

Adoptive Families ◽

Birth Family ◽

Open adoption relationships are rife with privacy dilemmas and fuzzy boundaries, which require ongoing coordination of private disclosures as a result. The present study employed communication privacy management (CPM) theory to examine adoptive parents’ ( N = 354) private disclosures with the birth family across in-person and mediated (i.e., texting and social media) contexts. SEM analysis revealed that adoptive families who were more private and were concerned about the birth family sharing private information with others viewed disclosures to the birth family as risky. These privacy concerns related to adoptive parents being more clear with the birth family about preferences for sharing that private information with others. More social media contact between birth and adoptive parents predicted increased perceptions of risk of disclosure to birth parents. Results advance CPM theorizing by underscoring the motivational bases of perceived risk, the importance of anticipated boundary turbulence, and the nuanced privacy management processes within communication modes.

Communication Privacy Management Theory and Health and Risk Messaging

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.513 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sandra Petronio ◽

Maria K. Venetis

Keyword(s):

Health Information ◽

Health Risks ◽

Private Information ◽

Management Theory ◽

Privacy Management ◽

Personal Privacy ◽

The Individual ◽

Communication privacy management theory (CPM) argues that disclosure is the process by which we give or receive private information. Private information is what people reveal. Generally, CPM theory argues that individuals believe they own their private information and have the right to control said information. Management of private information is not necessary until others are involved. CPM does not limit an understanding of disclosure by framing it as only about the self. Instead, CPM theory points out that when management is needed, others are given co-ownership status, thereby expanding the notion of disclosing information; the theory uses the metaphor of privacy boundary to illustrate where private information is located and how the boundary expands to accommodate multiple owners of private information. Thus, individuals can disclose not only their own information but also information that belongs to others or is owned by collectives such as families. Making decisions to disclose or protect private information often creates a tension in which individuals vacillate between sharing and concealing their private information. Within the purview of health issues, these decisions have a potential to increase or decrease risk. The choice of disclosing health matters to a friend, for example, can garner social support to cope with health problems. At the same time, the individual may have concerns that his or her friend might tell someone else about the health problem, thus causing more difficulties. Understanding the tension between disclosing and protecting private health information by the owner is only one side of the coin. Because disclosure creates authorized co-owners, these co-owners (e.g., families, friends, and partners) often feel they have right to know about the owner’s health conditions. The privacy boundaries are used metaphorically to indicate where private information is located. Individuals have both personal privacy boundaries around health information that expands to include others referred to as “authorized co-owners.” Once given this status, withholding to protect some part of the private information can risk relationships and interfere with health needs. Within the scheme of health, disclosure risks and privacy predicaments are not experienced exclusively by the individual with an illness. Rather, these risks prevail for a number of individuals connected to a patient such as providers, the patient’s family, and supportive friends. Everyone involved has a dual role. For example, the clinician is both the co-owner of a patient’s private health information and holds information within his or her own privacy boundary, such as worrying whether he or she diagnosed the symptoms correctly. Thus, there are a number of circumstances that can lead to health risks where privacy management and decisions to reveal or conceal health information are concerned. CPM theory has been applied in eleven countries and in numerous contexts where privacy management occurs, such as health, families, organizations, interpersonal relationships, and social media. This theory is unique in offering a comprehensive way to understand the relationship between the notion of disclosure and that of privacy. The landscape of health-related risks where privacy management plays a significant role is both large and complex. The situations of HIV/AIDS, cancer care, and managing patient and provider disclosure of private information help to elucidate the ways decisions of privacy potentially lead to health risks.

To Reveal or Conceal: Using Communication Privacy Management Theory to Understand Disclosures in the Workplace

Management Communication Quarterly ◽

10.1177/0893318917692896 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

pp. 429-446 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Stephanie A. Smith ◽

Steven R. Brunner

Keyword(s):

Private Information ◽

Management Theory ◽

Future Research ◽

Full Time ◽

Privacy Management ◽

Boundary Maintenance ◽

Communication Privacy ◽

Practical Implications

A sample of 103 full-time employees from various organizations and industries completed an online, open-ended survey to explore and understand the decisions people make to manage their private disclosures at work. Communication privacy management theory was used to understand the management of private information. Results indicate that core and catalyst criteria motivate people to reveal/conceal at work, such as boundary maintenance based on organizational culture, relational considerations, a desire for feedback, and risk/benefit considerations. People also used implicit/explicit rules, reiteration of privacy rules, and retaliation to limit and respond to turbulence. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research.

Communication privacy management of students in Latvia

Problems and Perspectives in Management ◽

10.21511/ppm.14(2-1).2016.11 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 222-227

Author(s):

Andris Petersons ◽

Ilkhom Khalimzoda

Keyword(s):

Private Information ◽

Foreign Students ◽

Privacy Management ◽

Management Skills ◽

Cultural Backgrounds ◽

Self Disclosure ◽

Existing Problems ◽

Set Up ◽

The lack of communication privacy boundaries among students and the fault of self-disclosure are two main reasons for unforeseen distress, broken relationships and trust, vulnerability and conflicts in universities. Based on S. Petronio’s theory of communication privacy management this research investigates the interaction of domestic students and foreign students in Latvia with their peers in order to set up privacy and disclosure boundaries that do not violate peer privacy, especially in a sensitive multicultural context. In fact, the presence of private information and the willingness to disclose it is often confronted with numerous privacy dilemmas and issues regarding their secureness, especially in universities where peers are young with different cultural backgrounds. This article analyzes the privacy management skills of locals and foreigners and reveals how security of information is managed between them stemming from social penetration and communication privacy management theory. Privacy management is significant in facing the dilemma of communication privacy and facilitates solving already existing problems of privacy among students

Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Media and Communications - Advances in Multimedia and Interactive Technologies ◽

Communication Privacy Management and Mediated Communication

10.4018/978-1-5225-7601-3.ch028 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 356-365

Author(s):

Debra L. Worthington ◽

Margaret Fitch-Hauser

Keyword(s):

Private Information ◽

Social Networking Sites ◽

Communication Technologies ◽

Future Research ◽

Privacy Management ◽

Mediated Communication ◽

Individual Privacy ◽

Communication privacy management theory (CPM) was originally developed to explain how individuals control and reveal private information in traditional social interactions. It has since been extended to a number of contexts, most recently to evolving communication technologies and social networking sites. CPM provides a set of theoretical tools to explore the intersection of technology and individual privacy in relationship management. This chapter introduces CPM; privacy is defined, the three primary components and eight axioms of CPM are reviewed, and their application to mediated communication contexts are outlined. Areas for future research are presented.