Data Privacy Trust

What it measures

Measures the extent to which a customer trusts a company to handle their data responsibly and reliably. Items capture overall trust, perceived trustworthiness, confidence in the company's conduct, and perceived reliability. Developed through a rigorous process of in-depth interviews, extensive item generation, and iterative testing, drawing partial inspiration from a measure by Palmatier (2008). Used in pre/post-treatment experimental designs measuring trust changes following data privacy interventions. AVEs ranged from .85 to .94.

Response format

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

Scale items

• I trust the company.
• The company is very trustworthy.
• I have confidence in the company's behaviors.
• The company is reliable.

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). Item stem: 'Regarding this company's customer data activities, I think:'. Construct reliability: .97 (Study 1), .96 and .98 (pre/post in Study 3). Pair with Data Privacy Fairness and Data Privacy Vulnerability.

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