Privacy Policy Analysis of Banks and Mobile Money Services in the Middle East

Privacy compliance of the Middle East’s financial sector has been relatively unexplored. This paper evaluates the privacy compliance and readability of privacy statements for top banks and mobile money services in the Middle East. Our analysis shows that, overall, Middle Eastern banks have better privacy policy availability and language distribution, and are more privacy compliant compared to mobile money services. However, both the banks and mobile money services need to improve (1) compliance with the principles of children/adolescent’s data protection, accountability and enforcement, and data minimization/retention, and (2) privacy statement texts to be comprehensible for a reader with ~8 years of education or less.

The effects of voluntary GDPR adoption and the readability of privacy statements on customers’ information disclosure intention and trust

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of companies’ voluntary adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as the readability of privacy statements on US customers’ intention to disclose information and their trust in a company. Design/methodology/approach Building on the construal level theory and psychological distance, the authors conduct a 2 × 2 + 2 between-participants experiment with 255 participants. Findings The findings show that a company’s voluntary adoption of the GDPR has positive effects on customers’ intention to disclose information to and their trust in that company. In addition, the effects of GDPR adoption are stronger when the adopting company’s privacy statements possess a higher level of readability. Originality/value The authors believe this study poses policy implications for the outcomes of GDPR adoption and the recent debate on both a stricter data breach and privacy regulation.

Availability and findability of FOI and privacy statements on Finnish municipalities’ websites

FOI and privacy statements are statements in which an organization inform users about the accessibility of the digital and analog information in its custody and the privacy policy it has adopted. This study examined whether Finnish municipalities have posted FOI and privacy statements on their websites.At the first phase 309 municipal websites were examined to see whether the statements were located on the front page or if there were direct links to them at the front page. If the website did not have FOI or privacy statement or a link to statements at the front page, then it was studied whether the statements could be found easily in the municipal website by making a simple search. At the second phase 38 municipal websites were studied.The study resulted that FOI and privacy statements are non-existent on Finnish municipal websites. The study also revealed while there is sometimes an effort to provide information on municipal FOI and privacy practices, the information is scattered on the website and it is not easy to find. This is in accordance with the previous studies in other countries. Interestingly, long tradition of Finnish FOI legislation does not seem to make a difference when it comes to informing users about FOI and privacy policies.Future studies should examine how aware are the citizens about FOI and privacy rights; whether the citizens trust authorities in handling information; and what are the reasons why authorities ignore to inform the citizens about FOI and privacy practices.

Do Privacy Statements Really Work?

Companies today collect, store and process enormous amounts of information in order to identify, gain, and maintain customers. Electronic commerce and advances in database and communication technology allow business to collect and analyze more personal information with greater ease and efficiency than ever before. This has resulted in increased privacy concerns and a lack of trust among consumers. These concerns have prompted the FCC to call for the use of Fair Information Practices in electronic commerce. Many firms have added privacy statements, formal declarations of privacy and security policy, to their e-commerce web sites in an attempt to reduce privacy concerns by increasing consumer trust in the firm and reducing the perceived risk associated with e-commerce transactions. This article describes an experiment designed to determine the efficacy of that strategy.

Information Privacy

The acquisition and use of personal information by large corporations continues to be a leading issue in the age of virtual communication and collaboration. This research reviews and analyzes the privacy policies of large US companies to evaluate the substance and quality of their stated information practices. Six factors are identified that indicate the extent to which a firm is dependent upon consumer personal information, and therefore, more likely to develop high quality privacy statements. The study’s findings provide practical and theoretical implications for information privacy issues, particularly for consumers who need to decide whether to disclose their personal identifying information to firms. The research also highlights the complexity and challenges of managing personal private information.

Do Privacy Statements Really Work?

Companies today collect, store and process enormous amounts of information in order to identify, gain, and maintain customers. Electronic commerce and advances in database and communication technology allow business to collect and analyze more personal information with greater ease and efficiency than ever before. This has resulted in increased privacy concerns and a lack of trust among consumers. These concerns have prompted the FCC to call for the use of Fair Information Practices in electronic commerce. Many firms have added privacy statements, formal declarations of privacy and security policy, to their e-commerce web sites in an attempt to reduce privacy concerns by increasing consumer trust in the firm and reducing the perceived risk associated with e-commerce transactions. This article describes an experiment designed to determine the efficacy of that strategy.