WWW PRIVACY POLICIES IN LARGE AND SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISES: DO THEY EASE PRIVACY CONCERNS?
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The increased interest in personal privacy has led businesses to issue privacy statements in hard copy and on Web sites that serve to notify the public of their intentions with regard to the collection and use of site visitors’ personal information. This in-process research presents data derived from Web site visits to show the extent of use and the content of privacy policies in large and small U.S. businesses. The large Fortune 500 businesses have slightly more than 50% with privacy policies. In contrast, less than 15% of the Inc. 500 have privacy policies. These large and small businesses also differ in regard to the content of the privacy policies and the use of visible privacy seals.Keywords:
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Many commerce websites post privacy policies to address Internet shoppers' privacy concerns. However, few users read or understand them. Iconic privacy indicators may make privacy policies more accessible and easier for users to understand: in this paper, we examine whether the timing and placement of online privacy indicators impact Internet users' browsing and purchasing decisions. We conducted a laboratory study where we controlled the placement of privacy information, the timing of its appearance, the privacy level of each website, and the price and items being purchased. We found that the timing of privacy information had a significant impact on how much of a premium users were willing to pay for privacy. We also found that timing had less impact when users were willing to examine multiple websites. Finally, we found that users paid more attention to privacy indicators when purchasing privacy-sensitive items than when purchasing items that raised minimal privacy concerns.
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Along with companies' increased interest in the use of personal information and the growing concerns of customers, privacy emerges as a critical issue in an e-commerce environment. Although several researchers have examined companies' privacy practices using posted privacy policy disclosures, few studies have investigated companies' privacy policies against Fair Information Practices (FIP). This study investigates companies' privacy policy statements and important privacy policies that individuals want to know against FIP. We examine the privacy policy statements of 136 companies from U.S. and Canada and relate them to the results of a Web-based user survey of 210 respondents. Our findings reveal a difference in companies' privacy policies between U.S. and Canada. The Security Safeguards and Use Limitation principles were the two most important companies' privacy policies that individuals want to know. The Security Safeguards and Purpose Specification principles were the two most frequently addressed OECD principles in more information-sensitive industries while the Purpose Specification and Openness principles were the two most frequently addressed principles in less information-sensitive industries. Thus, there is a gap between what privacy policies individuals value and what companies in less information-sensitive industries disclose in their privacy policy statements. However, companies in more information-sensitive industries frequently disclose an important privacy policy (i.e., Security Safeguards) that individuals want to know.
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As it becomes easy and inexpensive to store huge amount of data, concerns about privacy are increasing as well. Although service providers have privacy policies, research shows that users rarely read privacy policies. As a result, there has been little work done on how consumers respond to individual segments of privacy policies, which is important for organizations when designing privacy policies. In this study, the authors break down privacy policies of two well-known social network companies (Facebook, Twitter) and financial institution (Bank of America) into simple segments. They then use crowd sourcing to analyze consumers' response to these policy segments. The authors ask questions on users' awareness, expectations, familiarity, and privacy concerns of these policy segments. The relationships between various factors such as demographic factors, data type, data flow and consumers' privacy concerns were also investigated. The authors conclude with guidelines and suggestions for improvement and ways to increase users' awareness of privacy policies.
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Although several studies have examined individuals' privacy concerns and companies' privacy policy disclosures, only a few studies examined whether customers' privacy concerns are adequately addressed in companies' privacy policy disclosures. This study investigates companies' privacy policy statements and important privacy policies that individuals want to know. We examine the privacy policy statements of 136 companies from the U.S. and Canada and relate them to the results of a Web-based user survey of 210 respondents. Our findings reveal a difference in companies' privacy policies between the U.S. and Canada and a gap between what privacy policies individuals value and what companies emphasize in their privacy policy statements.
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Consumers' concerns about information privacy are a primary obstacle to the success of e-commerce. The adoption of privacy policy statements is a direct response to this concern. This exploratory study examined the willingness of graduate students (who, by virtue of age, education, and income, are representative of typical Internet consumers) to provide various types of personal information given varying degrees of protection offered by privacy policy statements. The results demonstrated that the willingness to provide information to Web merchants increased as the level of privacy guaranteed by the statements increased. More importantly, the level of privacy promised by the statements interacted with respondents' prior familiarity with policy statements in terms of their willingness to provide personal information. The results also demonstrated that while most individuals were aware of privacy policy statements, less than half of the respondents had ever read a privacy statement.Request access from your librarian to read this article's full text.
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