Privacy is often understood as a unitary phenomenon, although people have different expectations of privacy in relation to different people and are willing to share different information with them. For example, they are usually willing to share much more information about themselves with people close to them than with strangers or companies. However, research to date has rarely focused on understanding the differences between vertical and horizontal privacy. The former describes privacy in relationships between individuals and institutions, while the latter describes privacy in relationships between individuals.

Authors teaching assistant Jošt Bartol, Prof. Dr. Vasja Vehovar and Associate Professor Dr. Andraž Petrovčič, members of the Centre for Social Informatics, analysed how views on vertical and horizontal privacy affect an individual's willingness to share personal data in three online contexts:

• when shopping online 
• on social networks
• and when using instant messaging services.

The results showed that views on privacy in individual-institutional relationships play a greater role in information sharing during online shopping and on social networks. However, privacy views in person-to-person relationships are more important in the case of instant messaging services. The study thus illustrates that in order to gain a deeper understanding of an individual's online behaviour, it is useful to distinguish between vertical and horizontal privacy. 

Learn more about the research Cross-contextual analysis of the effects of vertical and horizontal privacy perceptions on willingness to disclose personal information on the internet on the link.  

Photo: Julio Lopez, Usplash