Abstract
Privacy research demonstrates a dichotomy between what individuals describe as their level of concern and the protective behaviors they exhibit. We posit this dichotomy or “privacy paradox” is impacted by a feeling of hopelessness regarding an individual’s ability to protect their personal information. Younger generations have experienced all of life on social networks and much of their private information has been online since before they made individual informed privacy decisions. We evaluate the proposed research model using a survey method targeted primarily at a younger population. This research demonstrates the initial impact of hopelessness on privacy concern and also exhibits the impact of privacy awareness and perceived control. Our findings indicate that a strong antecedent to privacy concern is the feeling there is nothing we can do to protect our privacy. We contribute to the ongoing privacy research stream by incorporating this concept from psychology into a privacy concern model.