Internet Privacy and Security: An Examination of Online Retailer Disclosures

The Federal Trade Commission has declared the privacy and security of consumer information to be two major issues that stem from the rapid growth in e-commerce, particularly in terms of consumer-related commerce on the Internet. Although prior studies have assessed online retailer responses to privacy and security concerns with respect to retailers’ disclosure of their practices, these studies have been fairly general in their approaches and have not explored the potential for such disclosures to affect consumers. The authors examine online retailer disclosures of various privacy- and security-related practices for 17 product categories. They also compare the prevalence of disclosures to a subset of data from a consumer survey to evaluate potential relationships between online retailer practices and consumer perceptions of risk and purchase intentions across product categories.