Online Health Information Exchange and Privacy

Exchanging personal data and disclosing one's self to others on the Internet is an integral part of everyday life for many users. Social media especially provides many opportunities for exchanging and sharing personal and sometimes even intimate data. Increasingly, users also exchange health information (e.g., concerning physical fitness or even diseases) with other users and institutions, which can bring several positive but also negative outcomes. Advantages of online health information exchange can involve receiving information, social support, or diagnoses independent of time and location. Disadvantages occur if users' privacy is threatened. Users might feel uncomfortable when their private data are not treated confidentially by other users or third parties, which might lead to negative emotions, decreased intention of using online healthcare services in the future, or even serious privacy breaches. Users' willingness to share personal health-related information via Internet-based systems depends on the expected positive and negative outcomes related to contextual (e.g., platform) and personal (e.g., concerns) factors. Since health information contains sensitive data, the willingness to exchange such data is always related to users' experienced and actual level of privacy. Analyzing the processes of online health information exchange against the background of users' privacy is valuable for the understanding of users' needs and provides a foundation for improving online healthcare services.