Evaluating VPN Users' Trust Among Information Technology Professionals and Nonprofessionals in Lagos, Nigeria

الملخص

This paper investigates the factors that lead to trust in Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) among the IT professionals and non-professional users in Lagos, Nigeria, regarding the perception of security, privacy, and usability. Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the study uses an exploratory qualitative design and an interpretivist paradigm to examine how users build trust in VPN technologies. The interviews were semi-structured and included 30 participants (10 professionals and 20 non-professionals), with data being analysed thematically. The results have identified four foundational determinants of VPN trust: technical configuration and encryption protocol, provider reputation and reliability, trust gap between paid and free VPNs and user education and awareness. IT professionals were highly technical savvy and placed trust in the strength of encryption, the configuration of protocols and industry standards. Non-professionals on the other hand evaluated trust with mainly experiential signals like brand familiarity, peer referrals, and perceived anonymity. Both sampled indicated higher confidence with paid VPNs because of better security guarantees and the mitigation of data exploitation. The paper identifies a continued knowledge gap that breeds misinformation about VPN functionality that adds to disconnect between perceived and actual security. It suggests enabling better regulation, transparency among the providers, and multi-level user education measures to enhance informed adoption of VPN. The paper ends by giving limitations of the study in terms of self-reported figures and those based on experience.