Protection of Consumer Privacy in E-Business

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The protection of consumer privacy in e-business

The digital era arrives. Blue Book information editorial board and Social Science Literature Publishing House (2010) pointed out that “China's e-commerce transaction volume reached 3.85 trillion yuan in 2009”. Utilisation of e-business services was also high amongst Hong Kong people. About 98.3% of all persons had used e-business services such as Octopus Card and Automatic Teller Machine (Census and Statistics Department, 2009). One of the pitfalls for the development of e-business, however, is the concerns on consumer privacy. According to Green’s (1999) survey, 54% of respondents had decided not to purchase a product because of a concern on overuse of personal information collected in the e-business transaction. This essay examines the circumstance on protection of consumer privacy in e-business. As e-business is surging by astronomical number and consumer information is a kind of property, the protection of consumer privacy in e-business becomes significant. This essay begins with the causes of the problem, and then move on to analyse the effects. Lastly, the essay concludes with the solutions to the problem.

At the beginning, the causes of the problem can be classified into three aspects: transferring personal data to others without consumers’ consent, lacking awareness on the protection of privacy and leaking the personal data unintentionally. The leakage of the personal data can be in the form of keeping and transmitting personal data insecurely and then stealing by crackers. There is no controversy on this cause- it is apparently a crime, hence, not discussed in this essay. One common torment of companies is that they are not renowned. Consumer personal information includi...

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...ies may argue that this act is hindering cold-calling companies from existing in the market but there is a controversy. It is apparent that consumers tend to reject the phone calls when they are angry to find that their privacy is sold.

To conclude, with the significance of e- business, consumer privacy becomes an important concern. The sales of consumer information and the lack of privacy awareness are the main causes of the privacy problem. The problem causes the harm to companies’ image, the troublesome to consumers, the loss of confidence in the rule of law and the increase in the awareness on privacy and respective solution are provided to tackle the consequences. Consumer privacy is an essential element in e-business. To further expand the utilization of e-business, each party should bear the responsibility to respect the privacy as to respect human rights.

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