Data Privacy Concerns and Consumer Engagement with AI-Enabled Global Digital Platforms in Bangladesh: The Mediating Role of Perceived Trust
Abstract
This study examines how data privacy concerns shape consumer engagement with AI-enabled global digital platforms in Bangladesh and tests perceived trust as an intervening mechanism. The study responds to the rapid normalization of data-intensive platform services in an emerging digital economy, where privacy concern, trust and continued participation coexist rather than operate as simple opposites. A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used. Of 400 database rows, 385 complete cases passed the embedded attention check and were retained. Privacy concern, perceived trust and consumer engagement were measured with three five-point Likert items each. Composite-score regression and non-parametric bootstrap mediation were used as a transparent robustness-oriented analysis because the three-item scales displayed only modest internal consistency. Privacy concern was positively associated with trust (b=0.164, p=0.006); trust, in turn, was positively associated with engagement while controlling for privacy concern (b=0.231, p<.001). The total privacy-concern-engagement association was small but significant (b=0.117, p=0.026), whereas the direct effect became non-significant after trust entered the model (b=0.079, p=0.123). The bootstrapped indirect effect was 0.038, 95% CI [0.010, 0.072], indicating an indirect pathway through trust. These results reveal a contextually important privacy-trust-engagement configuration, but the modest reliability of the short scales requires cautious interpretation. The article therefore contributes both substantive evidence and a measurement lesson for platform research in Bangladesh: privacy salience may coexist with engagement when users retain confidence in established platforms, yet stronger validated measures are needed before definitive causal or theory-confirming claims are made. Keywords: privacy calculus; digital trust; consumer engagement; global digital platforms; artificial intelligence; Bangladesh; mediation