This study aims to examine the effects of both spam and the resulting lack of privacy on users' behavior with respect to e-mail usage. This study reveals that spam e-mail triggers concerns about privacy and in turn, these privacy concerns influence the way users cope with spam or junk mails. Upon receiving spam e-mail, users predominantly exhibit two different behavioral patterns: usage-oriented (passive) and protection-oriented (proactive) behavior. For the purposes of this study, we used data obtained from Pew Internet Research. Logistic regression analysis was performed on the data (N=588) with the intention of examining how spam negatively affects e-mail usage and degrades life on the Internet. Our results show that: (1) e-mail users' spam experiences have a profound relationship with their privacy concerns; (2) privacy concerns help to mediate the relationship between the spam experience users' protective behavior; and (3) when concerned about privacy as the result of spam, e-mail users tend to exhibit both passive and proactive behaviors.

Acquisti, A., and Grossklags, J., (2003), "Losses, Gains, and Hyperbolic Discounting: An Experimental Approach to Information Security Attitudes and Behaviors," 2nd Annual Workshop on Economics and Information Security Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, MD.

Acquisti, A., and Grossklags, J., (2005), "Privacy and Rationality in Individual Decision Making," IEEE Security & Privacy, 3(1): 26-33.

Baron, R.M., and Kenny, D.A., (1986), "The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in Social Psychological Research: Conceptual, Strategic, and Statistical Considerations," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6): 1173.

Bovey, W.H., and Hede, A., (2001), "Resistance to organisational change: The role of defence mechanisms," Journal of Managerial Psychology, 16(7/8): 534.

Breznitz, S., (1983), The Denial of Stress International Universities Press, Inc, New York.

Campbell, A.J., (1997), "Relationship marketing in consumer markets: A comparison of managerial and consumer attitudes about information privacy," Journal of Direct Marketing, 11(3): 44.

Carnall, C.A., (1986), "Toward a Theory for the Evaluation of Organizational Change," Human Relations, 39(8): 745.

Clark, A.J., (1991), "The Indentification and Modification of Defense Mechanisms in Counseling," Journal of Counseling and Development : JCD, 69(3): 231.

Cournane, A., and Hunt, R., (2004), "An analysis of the tools used for the generation and prevention of spam," Computers & Security, 23(2): 154.

Cramer, P., (2004), "Stress, Autonomic Nervous System Reactivity, and Defense Mechanisms," in: Defense Mechanisms: Theoretical, Research, and Clinical Perspectives, U. Hentschel, G. Smith, J.G. Draguns and W. Ehlers (eds.), Elsevier, New York.

Cramer, P., and Block, J., (1998), "Preschool antecedents of defense mechanism use in young adults: A longitudinal study," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1): 159.

de Board, R., (1978), The Psychoanalysis of Organisations Tavistock, London.

Dickinson, D., (2004), "An Architecture for Spam Regulation," Federal Communications Law Journal, 57(1): 129.

Draguns, J.G., (2004), "Defense Mechanisms in the clinic, the laboratory, and the social world: Toward closing the gaps," in: Defense Mechanisms: Theoretical, Research and Clinical Perspectives, U. Hentschel, G. Smith, J.G. Draguns and W. Ehlers (eds.), Elsevier, Boston, MA, pp. 3-41.

Fahlman, S.E., (2002), "Selling interrupt rights: a way to control unwanted e-mail and telephone calls," IBM System Journal, 41(4).

Fallows, D., (2003), "How It Is Hurting E-mail and Degrading Life on the Internet," Pew Internet & American Life Project, URL: http://www.pewInternet.org/report_display.asp?r=102.

Fenichel, O., (1945), The Psychoanlytic Theory of Neurosis Norton, New York.

Ghanea-Hercock, R., (2003), "Authentication with P2P Agents," BT Technology Journal, 21(4): 146.

Hann, I.-H., Roberts, J., Slaughter, S., and Fielding, R., (2004), "Economic Returns to Open Source Participation: A Panel Data Analysis," Third Annual Workshop on Economics of Information Security, University of Minnesota, MS.

Hansell, S., (2003), "Internet is losing ground in battle against spam," The New York Times. 2003, Apr. 22, , 1.

Hentschel, U., Juris G. Draguns, Ehlers, W., and Smith, G., (2004), "Defense Mechanisms: Current Approaches to research and measurement," in: Defense Mechanisms: Theoretical, Research and Clinical Perspectives, U. Hentschel, G. Smith, J.G. Draguns and W. Ehlers (eds.), Elsevier, Boston, MA, pp. 3-41.

Hinde, S., (2002), "Spam, scams, chains, hoaxes and other junk mail," Computers & Security, 21(7): 592.

Hinde, S., (2003), "Spam: The evolution of a nuisance," Computers & Security, 22(6): 474.

Holmes, D.S., (1985), "Defense mechanisms," in: Encyclopedia of psychology, R.J. Corsini (ed.), Wiley, New York, pp. 341-350.

Huberman, B.A., Adar, E., and Fine, L.R., (2005), "Valuating Privacy," Workshop on Economics and Information Security2-3 June 2005, Boston, MA.

Judge, P., Alperovitch, D., and Yang, W., (2005), "Understanding and Reversing the Profit Model of Spam," WEIS05: Workshop on Economics and Information Security2-3 June 2005, Boston, MA.

Malhotra, N.K., Kim, S.S., and Agarwal, J., (2004), "Internet Users' Information Privacy Concerns (IUIPC): The Construct, the Scale, and a Causal Model," Information Systems Research, 15(4): 336.

Neumann, P., and Weinstein, L., (1997), "Inside Risks: Spam, Spam, Spam! ," Communications of the ACM, 40(6): 112.

Odlyzko, A., (2002), "Privacy, Economics, and Price Discrimination on the Internet " Workshop on Economics and Information Security, University of California, Berkeley, CA.

Oldham, M., and Kleiner, B.H., (1990), "Understanding the nature and use of defense mechanisms in organisational life," Journal of Managerial Psychology, 5(5): 1-15.

Ondrack, D.A., (1974), "Defense mechanisms and the Herzberg Theory: An alternate test," Academy of Management Journal (pre-1986), 17(000001): 79.

Robert E. Kraut, S.S., Rahul Telang, and James Morris., ( 2005), "Pricing Electronic Mail to Solve the Problem of Spam," Human-Computer Interaction, 20(1/2): 195-223.

Rosenberg, M., and Hovland, C., (1960), Attitude organization and change Yale University Press New Haven, CT.

Simon, H.A., (1982), Empirically Grounded Economic Reason MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Simon, H.A., and Thaler, R.H., (1986), "Rationality in Psychology and Economics/The Psychology and Economics Conference Handbook: Comments on Simon, on Einhorn and Hogarth, and on Tversky and Kahneman," The Journal of Business, 59(4): S209.

Sipior, J.C., Ward, B.T., and Bonner, P.G., (2004), "Should Spam Be on the Menu?," Association for Computing Machinery. Communications of the ACM, 47(6): 59.

Smith, H.J., Milberg, S.J., and Burke, S.J., (1996), "Information privacy: Measuring individuals' concerns about organizational practices," MIS Quarterly, 20(2): 167.

Smith, R.G.a.M.D., (2005), "Protecting Personal Information: Obstacles and Directions " WEIS05: Workshop on Economics and Information Security2-3, June, 2005, Boston, MA.

Stone, E.F., Gardner, D.G., Gueutal, H.G., and McClure, S., (1983), "A Field Experiment Comparing Information-Privacy Values, Beliefs, and Attitudes Across Several Types of Organizations," Journal of Applied Psychology, 68(3): 459.

Syverson, P., (2003), "The Paradoxical Value of Privacy," 2nd Annual Workshop on Economics and Information Security May 29-30,2003 Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, MD.

Vaillant, G.E., (1992), Ego mechanisms of defense: Aguide for clinicians and researchers American Psychiatric Press, Washington, DC.

Waldmann, E., (2000), "Incorporating Freud's Theory on Cognitive Processes into Business Ethics Education," Teaching Business Ethics, 4(3): 257.