Explaining the Impfact of Cloud Assurance Seals on Customers’ Perceived Privacy

Privacy concerns inhabit professional cloud adoption. Assurance seals resulting from a third-party cer-tification are frequently used from cloud service provider to provide privacy assurance for their cus-tomers. However, empirical findings on the effectiveness of assurance seals focusing on “who” issues those, even if customers also require the information why the assurance seal is valid and reliable. To fill this gap, we build on information integration theory and investigate the impact of certification au-thorities’ reputation and the quality level of an audit on customers’ perceived privacy within a profes-sional cloud environment by using an experimental design including 43 professional cloud decision makers. We show that certification authorities’ reputation does not alone produce opinion change, it rather affects customers’ perceived privacy resulting from the quality level of an audit. Our findings have theoretical implications for the information integration theory and assurance seal research. We also discuss the managerial implications of our work for cloud service providers and certification au-thorities.     «

Privacy concerns inhabit professional cloud adoption. Assurance seals resulting from a third-party cer-tification are frequently used from cloud service provider to provide privacy assurance for their cus-tomers. However, empirical findings on the effectiveness of assurance seals focusing on “who” issues those, even if customers also require the information why the assurance seal is valid and reliable. To fill this gap, we build on information integration theory and investigate the impact of cer...     »