A Research on Protection of Consumer Privacy in E-Commerce

Abstract

As consumers benefit from online shopping they are concerned with the protection of their personal information. This study aims to analyze what kind of policies eshopping web sites implement to protect their customers’ personal information. Data of the study have been obtained by examining Turkey’s 50 leading e-shopping web sites. Content analysis has been used to examine the collected data. The coding categories have been derived directly from the privacy policy texts. Privacy texts have been coded in the same way by two different people and the validity of inferences has been provided. Accordingly, the shopping web sites explain that they do not transfer the personal information to the third parties without any notification. However they have exceptions. Some businesses see the customers’ information as their own property and use them for their own gain. Moreover, they do not take any responsibilities to protect customer’s information.