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Privacy, fair information practices and the fortune 500: the virtual reality of compliance

Published: 07 February 2005 Publication History

Abstract

Corporate information privacy policies are receiving increased attention in the information privacy debate. Prior studies used Web surveys to analyze the content of online information privacy policies and to assess whether or not the policies comply with a standard known as the Fair Information Practices. One assumption of these studies is that the main role of a privacy policy is to protect the consumer by communicating a firm's information practices. This paper employs Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action to uncover the much more complex and multifaceted roles that privacy policies actually play in a social context. Overall, the study's findings offer insights into the reflective nature of information privacy policies, specifically their role in social interactions among companies, consumers and government regulators. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed and directions for future research provided.

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        cover image ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems
        ACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems  Volume 36, Issue 1
        Winter 2005
        80 pages
        ISSN:0095-0033
        EISSN:1532-0936
        DOI:10.1145/1047070
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        Association for Computing Machinery

        New York, NY, United States

        Publication History

        Published: 07 February 2005
        Published in SIGMIS Volume 36, Issue 1

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        Author Tags

        1. electronic commerce
        2. information privacy
        3. internet
        4. web surveys

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        • (2021)Information privacy concern at individual, group, organization and societal level - a literature reviewVilakshan - XIMB Journal of Management10.1108/XJM-08-2020-0096ahead-of-print:ahead-of-printOnline publication date: 8-Jan-2021
        • (2019)Unconventional Editorial ConventionsACM SIGMIS Database: the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems10.1145/3312576.331258350:1(44-47)Online publication date: 12-Feb-2019
        • (2018)Les questionnements éthiques en systèmes d’informationRevue Française de Gestion10.3166/rfg.2018.0022144:271(99-129)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2018
        • (2017)Compliance to personal data protection principlesTelematics and Informatics10.1016/j.tele.2017.01.00834:4(157-170)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2017
        • (2015)Company information privacy orientationInformation Systems Journal10.1111/isj.1208025:6(579-606)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2015
        • (2015)Information Privacy Protection Practices in AfricaProceedings of the 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences10.1109/HICSS.2015.420(3490-3497)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2015
        • (2011)E-Commerce and Privacy: Exploring What We Know and Opportunities for Future DiscoveryJournal of Information Systems10.2308/isys-1009025:2(11-45)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2011
        • (2010)Towards engineering HCI - Privacy requirement in Malaysia: A preliminary study on Small-Medium e-commerce privacy adoptions2010 International Conference on User Science and Engineering (i-USEr)10.1109/IUSER.2010.5716767(284-289)Online publication date: Dec-2010
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