The Role of State Privacy Regulations in Mitigating Internet Users’ Privacy Concerns: A Multilevel Perspective

In the U.S., there is no comprehensive national law regulating the collection and use of personal information. As a response to the high level of privacy concerns among U.S. citizens and the currently limited regulations, states have enacted their own privacy laws over and above the principles of Fair Information Practices (FIP). In this exploratory study, we draw upon the privacy literature and the Restricted Access/Limited Control (RALC) theory of privacy to study the privacy concerns phenomenon with a multilevel theoretical lens. We introduce and test three novel propositions pertaining to the impact of state level privacy regulations on privacy concerns. This combines consideration of individual differences as well as state level factors in predicting individuals’ Internet privacy concerns. Overall, the results provide support for the role of state level privacy regulations in mitigating individuals’ privacy concerns. We discuss the results, theoretical contributions, policy implications, and future research.