In terms of communication and internationalization, global openness is a defining characteristic of this era due to the revolution in advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs). While these emerging technologies (ETs) play significant roles in the maturity of information societies, they also pose severe threats to society’s values, such as personal information privacy (PIP). The impact of advanced ICTs is challenging to estimate due to their ubiquity and omnipresence. This situation will worsen because of disruptive emerging ICTs, such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of things (IoTs), and big data-based applications heavily dependent on users’ real-time personal information. Prior research suggests that despite concerns over the collection of personal information by these technologies, the increasing trends of data breaches, and the distribution of users’ personal dynamic information, individuals’ usage of modern technologies has paradoxically increased. Accordingly, this study explores how individuals will develop trust in AI-based ETs in the presence of PIP threats and the root causes behind their paradoxical thinking regarding their privacy.

This study’s literature review reveals that trust in ETs and the privacy paradox are subjective phenomena that are not merely outcomes of cost-benefit analysis. Individuals’ moral values (i.e., virtues) and experiences are essential in developing trust and explaining people’s paradoxical behavior. This study designed a research framework based on virtue ethics, the concourse theory, and Q-methodology to understand these phenomena and their associated subjectivity by following abductive logic in the constructionist paradigm.

The data analysis reveals five moral virtue structures (MVSs) predominant among this study’s participants, related to their development of trust in ETs in the presence of PIP threats. Based on these MVSs, this study identified five types of users. These MVSs show individuals’ belief that the virtues of hopefulness, altruism, commitment, hospitality, humor, tolerance, resourcefulness, dignity, boldness, loyalty, trustworthiness, warmth, thrift, magnanimity, thoughtfulness, harmony, cooperativeness,

openness, and perspicacity are more important for developing trust in ETs in the presence of PIP threats. The findings also show that in addition to individuals’ blind enthusiasm for technologies and beliefs in their trustworthiness, their’ socialistic views also play a critical role in the development of trust in ETs.

This study establishes a clear link between individuals’ temptation for technologies and moral character weakness, which in turn causes the privacy paradox. Individuals’ temptations for new technologies have become a distraction, preventing them from thinking about technology usage risks. This study concludes that individuals’ MVSs have been corrupted due to their temptations for new technologies. Due to this, they cannot determine their PIP value. By applying Aristotelian virtuous person logic, this study finds that individuals lack critical virtues (i.e., cheerfulness, prudence, self- discipline, and insightfulness) for developing trust in ETs in the presence of PIP threats.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge in multiple ways. It explains the reasons behind the privacy paradox and individuals’ sacrifice on their PIP and trust development in ETs through the virtue ethics perspective. This study also proposes a research framework for moral philosophers and psychologists to study individuals’ virtues and their mind’s transient states (i.e., transient subjectivity) from within the subjective paradigm. In closing, this study explains how the findings are relevant to policymakers and offer them privacy protection and regulation opportunities.