ABSTRACT
Protecting privacy is a matter of longstanding social and cultural concern (Magi 2011). Privacy is commonly viewed as the individual’s ‘right to be let alone’ (Warren and Brandeis 1890). In the context of consumption, the right to control the collection and subsequent use of personal information has been incorporated into this ‘right to be let alone’. For example, in the late 1960s, before the growth of the online medium, concerns emerged regarding the extent to which consumers had true control over the acquisition and use of their personal information (Westin 1967). This concern was reawakened in the 1990s in relation to database construction and direct-mail practice (see Foxman and Kilcoyne 1993; Goodwin 1991; Nowak and Phelps 1992). The ease, speed and completeness by which information on the digital consumer can be gathered, aggregated and shared have again revitalised this area of concern. The focus of this chapter is on information control. Research into online privacy has divided
the concept of information control into two areas: consumer awareness regarding how information is collected and consumer control over the subsequent use of the information once it has been collected (Sheehan and Hoy 2000). This chapter examines the collection and use of online consumer information in three stages: first, by identifying the methods by which the digital consumer’s personal data is collected; second, by examining how that data is used; and third by exploring privacy concern. The chapter concludes with an agenda for research.
