Understanding personal information disclosure in short video apps through gratification and addictive use

Although previous research has explored app users’ personal information disclosure, the underlying mechanisms remain insufficiently addressed. Drawing upon uses and gratifications (U&G) theory and Internet addiction literature, this study proposes a motivation-based framework, termed the Gratification-Addiction-Fatigue-Use (G-A-F-U), to understand personal information disclosure in short video apps. Specifically, it examines the relationship between perceived self-reactive benefits and disclosure intention, as well as the mediating roles of addiction and privacy fatigue.

Data were collected from 412 short video app users in China. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data. The results show that perceived self-reactive benefit is positively associated with personal information disclosure intention and short video app addiction.

Perceived personalization significantly moderates these relationships, whereas perceived socialization only moderates the relationship between perceived self-reactive benefit and short video app addiction, not the relationship with personal information disclosure intention. The results also reveal that short video app addiction is positively associated with privacy fatigue, which in turn is positively associated with users’ personal information disclosure intention. By integrating U&G theory and Internet addiction, this study offers a novel addiction perspective to explore the mechanism underlying app users’ personal information disclosure, extending privacy decision-making research.

This research was supported by the Chongqing Social Science Planning Project [Grant No. 2024NDQN079], the Scientific Research Project of Chongqing Institute of Engineering [Grants No. 2024XSKY001 and No. 2025gcky02]. School of Digital Economy and New Media, Chongqing Institute of Engineering, 16 Baihelin, Chongqing, China The authors declare no competing interests. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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