Captures the affective sense of exposure and susceptibility a consumer feels as a result of a company possessing their personal information. Items describe distinct but related emotional states — insecurity, exposure, threat, vulnerability, and susceptibility — all anchored to the company's data possession. The scale is primarily affective in nature, measuring felt states rather than cognitive risk appraisals. Developed through in-depth interviews and iterative item testing as part of a data breach vulnerability research programme. AVEs ranged from .81 to .91 across administrations.
7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Response anchors: strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). Item stem: 'The personal information that the company has about me makes me feel:'. Construct reliability: .95 (Study 1), .97 and .99 (Study 3 pre/post). Pair with Data Privacy Fairness and Data Privacy Trust for a complete privacy assessment battery.
Martin, K.D., Borah, A., & Palmatier, R.W. (2017). Data privacy: Effects on customer and firm performance. Journal of Marketing, 81(1), 36–58.
Free access to 2455+ psychometric scales at PsychScales