UC Santa Barbara

Drawing from the integrated model of online privacy (Bazarova & Masur, 2020), this study examined the impacts of socioeconomic and demographic differences on privacy concerns and privacy management behaviors on social media to uncover empirical evidence for an online privacy divide in the U.S. In addition, this study tested generalized social trust and institutional trust as underlying mechanisms that explain divides in social media privacy concerns and behaviors. Results from an online survey (N = 1401) revealed significant differences across education (people without vs. with a college degree) and race (African Americans and Latinos vs. Whites and Asians) in privacy concerns and privacy management behaviors on both the horizontal and vertical dimensions of social media privacy. Results further supported the mediating roles that generalized social trust and institutional trust play in these relationships. Theoretical contributions to the integrated model of online privacy and to the privacy and marginalization literature are discussed. Practical implications are provided.