Article Review (Shopping for Privacy on the Internet) Coursework

Article Review (Shopping for Privacy on the Internet) - Coursework Example He emphasized the fact that consumers would not be handed privacy on a silver platter but rather they must become vigilant in their demand for Web site operators to adhere to their demand for privacy. Professors Pitt and Watson (2007) respond to Nehf’s (2007) article by utilizing an ‘ecosystem approach’ to explore the various elements of privacy. Not only do they examine relations amongst the three main participants in the privacy interactions, namely, ‘citizen/consumer/investor, government and corporation’ but also the reasons for the lack of success of the market system to protect the privacy of all stakeholders. Nehf (2007) commences his article by emphasizing that the brunt of the responsibility of protecting consumer privacy is in the hands of the individual. The individual is the one who has to attempt to reduce the risks involved in submitting personal information to any public site. Particularly, on the World Wide Web the customer’s personal information may be used by unscrupulous Web site organizers. Although ‘federal (and a few state) laws’ limit the utilization of some personal information, these restrictions are full of exceptions and many of the internet transactions are not even ‘subject to state or federal privacy laws’(Nehf 2007, p.351- 352). Interestingly, Nehf (2007) highlighted the superficial form of concern that online businesses appear to have in protecting the privacy of their consumers. These businesses profess to collect a minute amount of data on the customer which will be kept safe from predators vandalizing this data. Consistent with this apparent concern for the protection of consumers’ privacy by online businesses, consumers also are genuinely concerned with ‘identity theft’ and the possible humiliation of having their private affairs published for all and sundry to peruse. Thus, consumers attempt to protect themselves by submitting as little information as possible to these