Dimensions of concern over telecommunications privacy in the United States

Abstract

Analyses of attitudes and concerns about privacy from a national survey sample of 1,532 adult Americans in 1988 revealed several separate dimensions. A modification of Tryon's method of clustering variables (third‐order correlations) yielded groups of variables whose meanings were much more interpretable than they had been when factor analysis was initially used. We tested the validity of the clustering by a highly comprehensive system of item analyses. The main findings were that (1) respondent concerns over telephone privacy were not related to other aspects of privacy, (2) interest in devices like Caller ID that enable recipients to know the number of the caller were not related to other aspects of telephone privacy, and (3) general privacy concerns under conditions where the respondent and the other party know each other were independent of those conditions where they do not know each other. Implications for telecommunications policy and new services are discussed.