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Longitudinal study examines how digital skills affect privacy protection intentions during AI expansion, suggesting a shift in dynamics.
As generative AI rapidly normalizes, privacy protection has become increasingly unequal. Drawing on protection motivation theory, this three-wave longitudinal study (2022–2024), spanning ChatGPT’s launch through widespread AI adoption, examines how digital competence shapes privacy protection intention (PPI) and the mediating role of privacy vulnerability. Despite high-competence users initially exhibiting stronger PPI, low-competence users showed steeper increases over time, producing unexpected convergence. Wave-specific mediation further revealed directional reversal: digital competence positively predicted vulnerability and PPI in Wave 1 but negatively predicted both in Waves 2–3, constituting inconsistent mediation. These findings complicate static inequality assumptions and call for dynamic, process-oriented theoretical frameworks.
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Shim et al. (2026) studied this question.
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