Experiments on personal information disclosure: Past and future avenues

When it comes to understanding the behavior of people when deciding whether to disclose personal information, just anecdotal evidence clearly suggests the need for experimental approaches. In spite of this, in the about fifteen years since the research on online privacy behavior emerged as a distinct field of scientific enquiry, experiments are but a few when compared to surveys and theoretical approaches, even adopting a broad definition of experiment. This article reviews all the experiments already done in the area and it also proposes a research agenda. Experimental techniques not only guide the building of descriptive theories but also serve to demonstrate or prove the adequacy of assumptions present in normative theory.