Eye in the Sky: Contextualizing Development with Online Privacy Concern in Western Balkan Countries

The online privacy issue has received a great deal of scholarly attention in the past decade. Studies for Western developed societies have shown that privacy concern and risk awareness are higher in more developed countries; however, the relevance of online privacy concern in the context of economic development remains unexplored. In a digital society, online privacy concern could have significant impact on the real economy; therefore it is not to be underestimated. If indeed development is influenced by the penetration of new technologies, the connection between online privacy concern and development could have a major role in post-transition economies. In this paper we try to determine the level of online privacy concern in a set of post-transition, Western Balkan countries and its repercussions on the future development of these countries. Past research for the Western Balkan region has shown significant structural differences in general privacy concern and here we introduce a new approach which focuses on online privacy concern. We contextualize online privacy with the implementation of reforms which are crucial for the Western Balkan region as well as for other less developed and post-transition economies. The differences in the level of online privacy concern among post-transition Western Balkan countries are discussed in the context of their economic, technological and institutional development, and policy implications are suggested.