| Chapter 2: | Literature Review |
|
|
the most crucial issue Internet consumers have identified is fear and distrust regarding loss of personal privacy associated with electronic commerce activities. Henderson and Snyder (1999) argued that there are three main driving forces for the growing attention to privacy issues:
- 1. The new technological capabilities
- 2. The increasing value of information
- 3. The confusion surrounding what is ethically right and wrong with information practices.
These trends are likely to continue into the future, rendering the current study of understanding privacy issues increasingly important.
In addition to the corporate use of data, state and other government agencies routinely sell or disclose information about residents to private organizations (Grupe, 1995). Smith et al. (1996) found that even in the case where collected information is used by the same company, but for a purpose other than originally intended, it very often elicits a negative response from the information owner who feels his information has been misused. This illustrates how easy it can be to alienate customers who hold privacy concerns.
O’Neil (2001) conducted an extensive study in which he examined the tradeoffs individuals indicated they would be willing to make with regard to privacy and convenience. Seventy-eight percent of the study’s respondents felt that privacy was more important than convenience, and privacy was ranked as the most important issue when using the Internet. In another study, Culnan (1993) found that 71% of the respondents believed financial information should not be shared with a third party without prior written permission.
Consumer strategies to protect personal information and privacy become a concern for businesses that depend upon such data to remain competitive in the marketplace. For example, users of the internet, faced with the prospect of being profiled or having their information