Data Privacy Fairness

What it measures

Assesses the degree to which a customer believes a company handles their personal data in a fair and ethical manner. Items span general fairness of data use, procedural fairness in data access, ethical conduct, and equitable data management. Developed through in-depth interviews, large item pools, and iterative survey testing. Part of a trio of related data privacy scales (alongside trust and vulnerability). Used in experimental research on how privacy practices affect consumer and firm performance outcomes. AVE was .89 in Study 1.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• I believe their use of my customer information is fair.
• I believe the company accesses my information in a fair way.
• I believe the company's use of my information is ethical.
• The company manages my information in an equitable way.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Response anchors: strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). Construct reliability = .97; AVE = .89. Item stem: 'Regarding this company's use of your customer information:'. One of three complementary scales — pair with Data Privacy Trust and Data Privacy Vulnerability for fuller assessment.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Martin, K.D., Borah, A., & Palmatier, R.W. (2017). Data privacy: Effects on customer and firm performance. Journal of Marketing, 81(1), 36–58.

Keywords