Is There a Privacy Paradox in the Workplace?

Abstract

This article deals with a possible of the privacy paradox during human-robot interactions in workplace. We conducted an experimental study in a real company setting with N=210 employees, and compared privacy concerns with actual information reluctance towards service robots for different tasks. Drawing on the computer-as-social-actor (CASA) paradigm, we argue that employees might mindlessly apply social rules when disclosing information towards service robots. Based on uncanny valley theory we also tested differences between humanoid and android robots. The results show that privacy concerns in the workplace are higher towards robots than towards humans, but they do not mirror the actual information reluctance. This indicates a privacy paradox in the workplace that is especially strong for interactions with android robots. This article contributes to research by transferring the privacy paradox to human-robot interactions and providing insights for companies how to deal with the increasing privacy issues.