Communication Privacy Management Theory

Worldwide, concern about privacy management has grown exponentially. New technologies affording easy access to communicate with others, their ubiquitous nature, and level of use, have resulted in growing concern about whether individuals have privacy at all. Yet, the very concern signals privacy as a value, and research shows it is not dead. However, understanding how people manage privacy, in general and in interpersonal relationships, is complex. Grasping navigation between wanting to use these technologies and wanting privacy requires a shift in how these issues are defined. Matters related to protecting private lives have been valued for centuries, across cultures, and contexts. Nevertheless, understanding how people manage private information is a relatively new area of inquiry. While some models and methods have been developed, Petronio's Communication Privacy Management Theory has provided a full complement of principles and processes that explain the communicative system of decisions people make in considering revealing and concealing private information. Keywords: communication theory; confidentiality; decision-making; disclosure; ethics; privacy