Influence of the Web Vendor's Interventions on Privacy-related Behaviors in E-commerce

Abstract

Concern about information privacy is considered one of the most important issues in e-commerce. To deal with this concern in the context of self-regulation, e-commerce web sites have implemented measures such as posting privacy policies and displaying third party seals. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the level at which a web site addresses privacy has on the users' perceptions and behavioral intentions during the initial interaction with the web site. A research model is presented and empirically tested by means of an experiment. The study showed that web vendors' interventions had an overall effect on the user perceptions of information privacy in the site. However, having more privacy elements in the web site did not increase the favorable perceptions of the web site. The research model also incorporated other privacy related constructs such as general concern about online privacy and type of information.