[The Impact of Online Privacy Information on Purchasing Behaviour]

By

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Many thanks to my family, friends, colleagues and my instructor as without their support and guidance, this project would not have been completed.

DECLARATION

I declare that this project shows my own work developed by a thorough analysis of the secondary research and primary research study. Moreover, this study has not been published before.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research is to understand the extent to which the online privacy issues hampers the online purchase behaviour. since the purpose was to explore the behaviour of consumers in term of their online buying behavioural and data protection concern, exploratory research design was used in the form of interview survey. 200 participants were selected base don random sampling. this research is significant because it provided an insight into the recently increasing issue of consumer data protection and the commercialization of this data for advertising and other purposes. it was found that the level of trust among the consumers about the online purchasing sites is low. in this context, the good will of the site, the purchase behaviour and the security of data ensured by the business are most significant factors for the consumers.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT1

DECLARATION2

ABSTRACT3

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION6

1.1 Background6

1.2 Purpose of the Study6

1.3 Problem Statement7

1.4 Aims and objectives of the study8

1.5 Research question8

1.6 Research Variables8

1.6.1 Dependant Variable8

1.6.2 Independent Variable8

1.7 Study Rationale9

1.8 Limitations and Delimitations9

1.9 Theoretical Account10

1.10 Key Concepts13

1.10.1 Consumer Privacy13

1.10.2 Protection of Privacy14

1.10.3 Privacy Issues and Consumer Research14

1.10.4 Consumer Privacy15

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW17

2.1 Vulnerability of the Online Consumer17

2.2 Online Purchasing17

2.3 Online Privacy Information and Purchasing19

2.4Online Privacy Risk and Protection20

2.5 Specific Issues of Vulnerability and Online Purchases22

2.6 Protecting Consumer Privacy in Digital Media23

2.7 Summary24

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY25

3.1 Research Design25

3.2 Research Execution26

3.3 Data Collection26

3.4 Online Concern and Shopping Experiment27

3. 5 Instrumentation27

3.6 Ensuring the Validity and Reliability of the Instrument28

3.7 Sampling28

3.8 Screening Survey30

3.9 Data Analysis30

3.10 Ethical Concerns31

3.11 Summary32

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS33

4.1 Calculating the Regression (R Square Value and Coefficients)33

4.2 Online Concern Survey Results34

4.2.1 Frequency of Online Purchases34

4.2.2 Important Consideration when making the online purchase35

4.2.3 Personal Data loss36

4.2.4 Degree of Trust37

4.2.5 Data protection by the Websites38

4.2.6 Conscious of the online sources about consumer data Protection39

4.2.7 Privacy Concerns among the Consumers40

4.2.8 Factors that Build Up Online purchasing trust41

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION43

5.1 Key Findings43

5.2 Recommendations for the Future Research43

5.3 Conclusion44

REFERENCES45

APPENDIX49

Online Interview Questions49

Face to Face Interview50

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

The belief of most of the UK nationals is that the right to consumer privacy has been comprised by the commercialization of the industries. According to Acquisti,Friedman,Telang, (2006) the concept of consumer privacy remains important to the individuals, and people are largely concerned about protecting their personal information. This study confirms the notion of privacy that continues to evolve in response to the spread of new digital technologies and which continues to grow in the consumer society.

An important aspect of the Internet is that no one can possess or control a factor that greatly influences the degree of openness of information sharing. Privacy on the Internet depends on the type of activity undertaken (Thomas, Robert, ...