Power imbalance between platforms and users: an exploration of privacy apathy towards platform surveillance

Privacy apathy towards platform surveillance has emerged as a notable trend in China. Drawing from the Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory, this study explored the incongruent relationship between individuals’ platform surveillance awareness and their privacy apathy attitudes. This study focuses on the inclusive coordination pattern within the CPM framework to examine how coercive linkages undermine individuals’ control over their privacy and expose them to injustices embedded in privacy policies. Analysing survey data from 765 participants, our findings indicated that perceived platform surveillance was positively associated with attitudinal and behavioural dimensions of privacy apathy. Moreover, perceived surveillance positively predicted perceptions of unfair privacy protective policies, which in turn, negatively predicted individuals’ sense of privacy control, self-efficacy, and response efficacy, ultimately leading to privacy apathy. Our study extended CPM to the individual-organisation context and deepens our understanding of privacy proxy agencies. Our study reveals structural barriers to user privacy protection driven by power imbalances and offers guidance for designing privacy education programmes that effectively enhance users’ privacy attitudes and behaviours.