IT Management help on: Privacy

Privacy refers to a term which means to control one’s personal information or data from being shared it form everyone. Privacy & security refers to two major problems for e-commerce consumers in today’s life.With such type of a problem the online consumers will not feel free to visit or shop online. They will not feel comfortable in sharing their personal details such as account details, telephone numbers, etc. This issue paper takes into consideration the current state as well as the importance of privacy in e-commerce. Privacy can be examined from various aspects such as social, organizational, economic, technical, psychological & regulatory perspectives.

Privacy has been termed to be one of crucial issues in e-commerce. According to Fisher, it was seen that approximately 41% of the users who practiced buying & selling over the web were surveyed reported that, they called up one of the site in order to take off their details. This is because they felt that the enterprise used their personal information unwisely.  Based upon the poll carried over business week, it was found that 41% of the web shoppers were mainly concerned regarding their personal information & the rest were concerned in the formulation of the laws for all those who collects the personal information & uses them unwisely (Fisher, 2001).In the year 1998, according to Foreign Trade Commission (FTC) it was found that many of the online businesses were failed. This was due to the fact that much online business declined to adopt one of the most fundamental practices for information practices. Some of the online customers think that, it is a business to buy & sell the personal information of the web users. Based upon the present business practices, pressure of media privacy over e-commerce has become one of the major issues as well as potential problem for all the online users.

It must be seen that, tacking the privacy problem is not an easy task. It has been noticed that, privacy discussions have more or less converted into heated talks. It has been stated in one of the research that, “privacy for some people has been referred to as a fundamental right whereas for others it has been termed to be a tradable commodity”. According to Etzioni, 1999 privacy has been rendered to be illegitimate whereas on the other hand Davis states that privacy has become a squandered right.

It has been seen that both the consumers along with the businesses have varied viewpoints regarding the same. Privacy has been considered to be a societal issue. There are various other examples such as tracking chip of the vehicle, monitoring of the telephone, image recognition from the public camera, etc have been over ruled in form of the privacy issue.

Based upon Culnan 2000, privacy has been defined as an “ability of an individual to control the various personal information which is acquired & then used unwisely”. Individual privacy has been referred to as a matter of sheer tension & has been defined as a conjunction of capabilities to transact the business as well as control its level of privacy. Clarke 1999, has noticed that the levels of privacy needs to be traded off in some of the transactions such as credit card information, account details, quality of health to be maintained, etc. Apart from privacy there are various terms such as notice, digital, choice, authentication, identification, anonymity & trust which could be used in privacy discussions.

Based upon the Poneman institute who have surveyed thousands of individuals on variety of issues affecting privacy some of the emerging trends have raised. Based upon the emerging trends it could be seen that, privacy has been led to as one of the most crucial aspects which need to be checked by the individual. The major concern lies in the fact that, how organizations collect as well as uses one’s personal information. Based upon the research conducted in the year 2005, top five privacy issues have come up. They have been discussed in this part of the issue paper. The first privacy issue refers to identity management – balancing privacy & security. The first issue highlights that identity has been referred to as a key to protect the personal information as well as the privacy rights. Based upon the findings of the Poneman institute 2004, it has been noticed that approximately 70% of the respondents said they were not ready to use any type of biometrics i.e. voice recognition, finger prints, etc. The sole reason was it was highly inconvenient. Whereas on the other hand 88% of the respondents said that, biometrics would be more accurate as well as turn out to be one of the most convenient means to be practiced in the future years (Smith, Jeff, Milberg & Sandra, 1996).The second issue which is attached with privacy issues refers to spoofing & phishing. Based upon the research carried by Poneman Institute in the year 2005, spoofing & phishing has been rendered to as an act to reading the spam mails, websites as majority of the robbery as well as monetary damage is being absorbed by the bank officials. It has been estimated that approximately 2% of the population has reported to an average loss of $115. The phishing fraud has been calculated to be more than $480 (Smith, Jeff, Milberg & Sandra, 1996). Based upon the research conducted in the 2005, proactive as well as various technologies such as crawl shall be undertaken which would identify the domains containing intellectual property. The customers shall be educated regarding the dangers of phishing, fraudulent mails, faked mails, spoofing etc. It must be seen that, the employees of the organization shall understand the seriousness of the problem.

The third issue which is attached with the privacy issue refers to internet advertising. Based upon a research conducted in the year 2004, it was concluded that consumer prefers banner ads as compared to the 2-to-1 margin advertisements (Davis, 1998). The survey also highlighted that; consumers would be willing to have strong privacy measures if & only if they provide information which would enable them to have more ads over the net.The fourth issue which is attached with privacy issue refers to the fact that consumer trust has a dollar value. Based upon the survey conducted in the year 2003 & 2004, the trust as well as the confidence of consumers would be calculated on the basis how the companies collect the relevant personal information & uses it. The last issue attached with privacy issue refers to the fact that, when you fly, privacy takes up a back seat in security. Based upon the survey conducted in the year 2004, an airline industry said that privacy has been referred to as one of the most important aspect. Approximately 80% of the respondents said that, they would provide their personal information without asking too many questions. Whereas on the other hand, only 3% of the respondents refused to provide their personal information & 50% of the respondents didn’t feel like sharing their personal information with the government (Davis, 1998).

The report from Goldman Sachs states that the various commercial properties such as ebay & yahoo have received millions and millions of investors and hence it could be seen that, ecommerce is on the verge of growing. One of the reports states that ecommerce has been estimated to be approximately $1.5 trillion in the year 2004. Based upon one of the surveys, it could be seen that there are 94% online buyers. But out of this chunk only 10% prefer to buy online & the rest states that consumers have high levels of security as well as privacy issues attached to it (Adams & Martina, 1999).Hence, it could be concluded that privacy issues in e-commerce is an ongoing research problem. There are certain interesting as well as significant findings which would tend to bear some of the consequences in e-commerce. Privacy in e-commerce now has been understood by the consumers in an elaborative manner (Ackerman, Mark & Lorrie, 1999). It must be taken into consideration that, some of the technical advancements & developments shall play one of the important roles in case of privacy of the personal details or information of the online buyers. With such type of a problem the online consumers will not feel free to visit or shop online. They will not feel comfortable in sharing their personal details such as account details, telephone numbers, etc. This issue paper takes into consideration the current state as well as the importance of privacy in e-commerce. Privacy can be examined from various aspects such as social, organizational, economic, technical, psychological & regulatory perspectives.

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