A Path Analysis Model to Identify the Effects of Social Media, News Media and Data Breach on Data Protection Regulation Awareness

The importance of data in the digital economy has encouraged the mass collection, exchange, and processing of data. Despite the benefits of a data centric economy, the increasing volume of data available on consumers exposes them to numerous vulnerabilities. Although various literatures have studied the isolated effects of content sharing (through social media), new dissemination (through the news media), and data breach on data privacy awareness, no study have been done to examine their interrelated effects on data protection regulation awareness. Therefore, this study aims to identify the interrelated effects of content sharing (through social media), news dissemination (through the news media), and data breach on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) awareness. The findings of this research can be used to guide authorities in the promotion of data protection regulation awareness in an effective and efficient manner. These effects were subsequently modelled using Path Analysis under the data mining process. This study revealed that news dissemination had the greatest effect on GDPR awareness. This is followed by content sharing and data breach frequency accordingly. Additionally, it was identified that news dissemination had also an indirect effect on GDPR awareness through content sharing.