The reading “Privacy-Enhanced
Personalization,” mentions several privacy concerns that web users have said
are important for them. Although I consider all of them to be relevant to how
we as users deal with privacy, I personally thing three are the main important.
First, I think trust is crucial between websites and its users. Is not so much
about what you share and what you don’t, its about what level of trust is out
there for whatever you decide to share with a particular website. Based on our
level of trust we will choose to share information or not to share information.
The credibility of the website is crucial when sharing information. For
instance, I shop online on Amazon just because they have made me trust them
with the information I have provided to them. This includes national addresses
as well as international locations where I have had them deliver me something.
However, it takes time for trust to
develop. A second concern that I personally take into much consideration is the
presence of a privacy statement. Yes, I think is good and it adds trust to the
users. Nevertheless, a lot of the privacy statements are required, legal, or as
the reading notes, are “demonstrations of good will.” With this in mind, the
fact that a website has a privacy statement that does not completely guarantee
privacy. For me this is another concern. We have to be careful when the
statements that websites have or don’t have. Lastly, I believe positive past
experience play a big role in our concern with privacy. When I travel, for
example, I always buy mi tickers from websites such as Orbitz and Kayak. I had
never had an issue with them before. In fact, much of my information is already
on there. These have been reliable sites for me and as a result my concern
about privacy is not as big as if I was using a new site.
The article also talks about
privacy attitudes. I would consider myself to be a privacy pragmatist, which is
someone generally concerned about their privacy, but to a lesser degree than
the privacy fundamentalist. Of course we have to be concern about what
information who share on websites, but I also have the belief that as much as
privacy as we want to be able to have, the internet will never be fully
private. Perhaps this might just be me. This makes me question, do privacy statements
actually guarantee privacy?
Edgar,
ReplyDeleteI like all the personal takes on the issues that arose in the article. I too am an avid Amazon shopper due to their established reputation in the e-commerce world, as well as their streamlined personalization touches. Your question is one I think many people are still up in the air about. We've all skimmed through tenfold privacy statements but do we really understand what they are telling us? What happens when we've established this trusting relationship for years but then they hand over all our data to the federal government should they be interested? Are those statements a facade? Does our signature simply mean that should the circumstances change so does our agreement?
Edgar,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on trust playing a key role in whether we choose to disclose our personal information with Web companies or not. I do a lot of my online shopping with just a few select Web sites because of the trust I've built with them over time knowing exactly what to expect. I always question doing business with new companies and Web sites because I don't know what their reputation is first hand. And as far as privacy guarantee's go I don't believe their will ever be such a thing as full privacy disclosure on the internet. The internet is a great tool but the thought of never truly knowing who has access to the information you give out is pretty scary.
Edgar,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you brought up how our frequency of use with websites can dictate how much we trust them. Traveling sites that already have your information are very convenient because entering the same information over and over again is redundant and a waste of time. They also are very useful because they can learn your travel habits and help you find deals on places you visit often. I think this brings up the idea of trading privacy for personalization. With websites that are useful and trusted, more consumers are willing to divulge their information because it will be helpful to them, and they can trust the website to not use it wrongly. In regards to your privacy question, I do not think that privacy disclosure's actually guarantee anything. They are put there for legal reasons, and unless the average consumer knows what they are agreeing to, it is void.