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Environment and Behavior
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How Far Is Far Enough? A Measure of Information Privacy in Terms of Interpersonal Distance

Shu Li

Chinese Academy of Sciences, liym{at}psych.ac.cn

Yan-Mei Li

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Do average people have a sense of information privacy, and do they require others to understand and respect such privacy concerns? This research attempted to operationalize the measure of information privacy by using interpersonal distance as a unit of measurement. We collected data on the interpersonal distance among the automatic teller machine (ATM), add value machine (AVM; information privacy attached) and ticket vending machine (TVM; little information privacy attached) users. On-site observation revealed that the interpersonal distance between ATM users was larger than that between AVM users, and the interpersonal distance between AVM users was larger than that between TVM users, which suggested that the concept of information privacy (in terms of personal identification numbers, money, etc.) can be thus operationalized and measured. Moreover, on-site observation and interview revealed that desired distance was larger than the actual distance for both ATM and AVM users, which indicated that people's actual information privacy need is higher than that anticipated by others.

Key Words: information privacy • interpersonal distance • automatic machine user

Environment and Behavior, Vol. 39, No. 3, 317-331 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0013916506290956
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