Title: Online Privacy Practices: Advances in China
Abstract: ABSTRACTMuch of the research in the area of online privacy has been limited to the United States. However, with the Internet community truly global, studies dealing with policy issues of online privacy should extend internationally. Using a relativistic perspective based on the U.S., we first examine the state of privacy regulations in China, which has one of the highest Internet usage rates in the world. We next assess the information practices of companies in China by examining the extent and the type of disclosures posted by top Chinese consumer-oriented websites. Our findings suggest that there is some semblance of self-regulation evolving in terms of online privacy protection in China. A surprising 72.5% of Chinese websites posted some kind of privacy disclosure, and the range of information posted on the websites appears to be comparable with the types of disclosures on the U.S. websites. In fact, privacy disclosures of Chinese websites adhere more closely to Federal Trade Commission fair information practices than do those of U.S. websites.INTRODUCTIONThe technological advancements that have made the Internet a penetrating force in today's consumer marketplace have also improved marketers' abilities to collect and disseminate information electronically. This rapid advancement in technologies has enhanced the potential for consumer surveillance and data exchange which, if left unchecked, places consumer privacy at considerable risk (Roger, 1998; Taylor, 2004). Personal privacy has historically been valued and sought by consumers, and today's firms must be responsive to consumer privacy issues when determining ethical strategies that will benefit both the company and its customers (Lanier & Saini, 2008). In fact, Palmer (2005) notes a transformation of the concept of privacy in online realms, and presents privacy as an inherent ethical issue to ecommerce (Palmer, 2005). Online privacy can be viewed as essentially a consumer's exchange of information for online benefits in the form of information/message relevance (Ashworth & Free, 2006). However, privacy worries have at times led consumers to provide false information when online privacy policies are not readily available, thus undermining data accuracy (Kuo, Lin & Hsu, 2007). Website privacy policies have thus been identified as an important way for companies to ease privacy concerns of consumers, and reassure them of a firm's ethical practices (Pollach, 2005).Regulatory approaches to online privacy have varied according to different economic blocs: the European Union has taken an omnibus approach with its position as a central overseer, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has begun work on a privacy framework amenable to its Member Economies, and the United States has chosen a sectoral approach, legislating according to industry needs. As the Internet penetrates all national boundaries and consumers on the Web can no longer be confined territorially, ethical approaches to privacy should warrant attention across nations. To address this need, the current research examines the state of privacy regulations in China, which has one of the highest Internet usage rates in the world. We next assess the information practices of companies in China by examining the extent and the type of disclosures posted by top Chinese consumer-oriented websites as compared to fair information standards of companies in the United States.BACKGROUNDCorporate Practices and Internet Privacy in a Global ContextMilne and Culnan (2002) showed that companies in the U.S. have been steadily increasing their adherence to fair information practices despite a legislation-free environment. On the public policy front, the findings of these studies have also been influential in a number of U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decisions on Internet privacy (e.g., FTC, 1999). Yet, resistance to the adoption of a global standard remains, with the greatest disparity still centered on the policy instruments chosen to enforce the standards (Bennett, 1992; Milberg, Smith & Burke, 2000; Pincus & Johns, 1997). …
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 6
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot