Privacy Management Theory

In today's world, managing privacy has become a critical part of everyday life for many societies. Although privacy is important, the juxtaposition of privacy and social interactions is often misunderstood. The theory of communication privacy management (CPM), developed by Sandra Petronio, provides a vehicle to understand the way people handle decisions about revealing or concealing private information as they enact social relationships with others. Since the early 1980s, the development of CPM theory has been grounded in empirical research, and as a consequence, its principles have been repeatedly tested for their robustness in explaining the way people regulate privacy.

Though CPM initially grew out of an interpersonal and family tradition, it has evolved to be a viable tool for examining the regulation of disclosing and protecting private information in a vast array of contexts. For example, CPM has been used to understand disclosure of personal medical information in genetic testing, an examination of privacy and Weblogging, HIV disclosure and privacy, Internet privacy, privacy issues in e-commerce, studying privacy and radio frequency identification, privacy in cancer care, workplace surveillance, secrets in primary care, medical mistakes, and privacy expectations athletes have when they disclose to their athletic advisors. This theory meets the test of heuristic value and continues to grow through the applications of the original principles.