The privacy predicament is a new concept, which refers to a broad range of challenges and psychological burdens for digital platform users when dealing with privacy issues. Exploring the influencing factors and formation mechanisms of privacy predicaments of digital platform users can contribute to privacy governance. In the study, 28 digital platform users were comprehensively interviewed in a semi-structured format. Using grounded theory, the study identifies platform, user, national, and social factors that influence the formation of privacy predicaments. Among these factors, national and social factors are external causes of privacy issues, whereas user and platform factors are internal causes, and all have a causal relationship with the formation of user privacy predicaments. Privacy sentiment moderates the impact of social factors causing privacy predicaments. This study emphasizes that collaborative efforts from all actors, including users, digital platforms, and society, are needed to address privacy predicaments. The study provides specific guidelines for these efforts.
