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Purpose: This exploratory study explores usage habits in music streaming applications (MSA) and their influence on various dimensions, such as: changes in personal music management (PMM) and musical information retrieval; sense of ownership over songs being stored on MSA; and privacy concerns when using those applications. It also investigates the potential effect of demographic factors and personal musical preferences on the tested variables. Design/methodology/approach: This is examined by using a mixed methodology that is consisted of two phases – qualitative and quantitative: The qualitative phase includes semistructured interviews with three MSA users, and the quantitative phase includes the distribution of closed-ended questionnaires among 192 users of MSA. Findings: It seems that the musical information management methods have changed dramatically with the introduction of MSA. Also, the findings show that even though users are only moderately concerned about their privacy within MSA, they are willing to pay for premium services that will ensure privacy protection. Interestingly, personal musical preference was found to affect the belief in the potential of using MSA as part of a social activity and on the willingness to pay for premium services within them. Originality/value: This paper represents an extension of the article by Weinberger and Bouhnik (2019). It appears to be the first academic research to investigate the issue of musical information retrieval and PMM among MSA. In addition, it is the first study that takes into account privacy-related issues among MSA users. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2020-0118 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. In this exploratory study, we proposed an experimental framework to investigate and model male/female differences in attitudes towards online privacy and anonymity among Israeli students. Our aim was to comparatively model men and women's online privacy attitudes, and to assess the online privacy gender gap. Method. Various factors related to the user's online privacy and anonymity were considered, such as awareness of anonymous threats made online, concern for protecting personal information on the Internet, online privacy self-efficacy, online privacy literacy and users' tendency to engage in privacy paradox behaviour, i.e., personal data disclosure despite the awareness of anonymity and privacy threats. Analysis. A user study was carried out among 169 Israeli academic students through a quantitative method using closed-ended questionnaires. The subjects' responses were analysed using standard statistical measures. We then proposed a summarized comparative model for the two sexes' online privacy behaviour. Results. We found that a digital gap still exists between men and women regarding technological knowledge and skills used to protect their identity and personal information on the Web. Interestingly, users' tendency to engage in privacy paradox behaviour was not higher among men despite their higher level of technological online privacy literacy compared to women. Conclusions. Women's relatively high online privacy self-efficacy level and their low awareness of technological threat do not match their relatively low technological online privacy literacy level. This leads to a lower ability to protect their identity and personal information as compared to men. We conclude that further steps should be taken to eliminate the inter-gender technological gap in online privacy and anonymity awareness and literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]