Aim/Purpose: This study aimed to increase our understanding of how the stages of the customer purchase journey, privacy trade-offs, and information sensitivity of different business service sectors affect consumers’ privacy concerns. Background: The study investigated young consumers’ willingness to provide consent to use their personal data at different phases of the customer journey. This study also examined their readiness to provide consent if they receive personal benefits, and how information sensitivity varied between different individuals and business sectors. Methodology: Data was collected by a quantitative survey (n=309) and analyzed with R using the Bayesian linear mixed effect modeling approach. The sample consisted of university students in Finland, who represented a group of young and digitally native consumers. The questionnaire was designed for this study and included constructs with primarily Likert-scale items. Contribution: The study contributed to data privacy and consent management research in information sensitivity, privacy trade-off, and the customer journey. The study underlined the need for a stronger user experience focus and contextuality. Findings: The results showed that readiness to disclose personal data varied at different phases of the customer journey as privacy concerns did not decrease in a linear fashion throughout the purchase process. Perceived benefits affected the willingness to provide consent for data usage, but concerned consumers would be less trade-off oriented. Self-benefit was the most relevant reason for sharing, while customization was the least. There is a connection between the information sensitivity of different business sector information and privacy concerns. No support for gender differences was found, but age affected benefits and business sector variables. Recommendations for Practitioners: The study recommends approaching consumers’ data privacy concerns from a customer journey perspective while trying to motivate consumers to share their personal data with relevant perceived benefits. The self-benefit was the most relevant benefit for willingness to provide consent, while customization was the least. Recommendation for Researchers: The study shows that individual preference for privacy was a major factor directly and via interaction for all three models. This study also showed that consumers’ subjective decision-making in privacy issues is both a situational and a contextual factor. Impact on Society: This study could encourage policymakers and societies to develop guidelines on how to develop privacy practices and consent management to be more user centric as individuals are increasingly concerned about their online privacy. Future Research: This study encourages examining consumers’ motivational factors to provide digital consent for companies with experimental research settings. This study also calls to explore perceived benefits in all age groups from the perspective of different information in various business sectors. This study shows that privacy concern is a contextual and situational factor.

You may not always stop your personal information from ending up in the internet’s dark recesses, but you can take steps to protect yourself from criminals looking to exploit it

After we changed everyone's passwords a couple of weeks ago, people were asking some questions about passwords and personal data.  Firstly, we don't hold much personal data- as people have usernames, we don't know real names. We do ask for the year and date of birth to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We ask for an active email account and send a link that has to be clicked on to complete the registration. This is to make it harder for automated registration by advertisers and spammers. We also ask where you're from, where you are based now and what your first language is. There are also optional fields where people can add biographical information and interests if they wish. Unless you use your real name as a username or connect via Facebook, the data is anonymous. If an acount is deleted, this information is deleted from our records.

Professor Zhu Feida The global personal data economy is growing faster than anyone could have imagined. The current business model for data is broken – for individual users and businesses alike. On one hand, users don not have enough control over their own data, such as what data is collected and how the data is used. That challenges their privacy. Users are also not fairly rewarded for their data. On the other hand, while most businesses see the value of customer data, the data they have is fragmented and incomplete. That results in blurry customer profiles, inaccurate insights and poor recommendations. Furthermore, it is difficult for businesses to connect with their customers in a personalised way and track the effectiveness of the connection. In this podcast, Associate Professor Zhu Feida from SMU School of Information Systems shares his research on a next-generation, blockchain-based platform named Symphony. The platform seeks to empower a personal data economy by democratising and personalising data intelligence, with privacy by design.

The pandemic has driven consumers online for everything from groceries to outdoor heaters. But e-commerce experts caution that online sellers are netting not just revenue, but a treasure trove of personal data, too.

A tech recruiting firm left a database unsecured that exposed emails, passport numbers and partial SSNs of job seekers, a security researcher says.

On July 1st, the Delaware Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Unit launched a new personal data privacy portal, privacy.delaware.gov, as a navigational tool for parents, consumers and businesses that handle Delawareans’ personal data to help prepare for the upcoming implementation of the Delaware Personal Data Privacy Act (DPDPA), which goes into effect in January 2025. […]

Adherence to the principles of data privacy and data minimisation is particularly pertinent given the sensitive nature of children’s personal data

Recent years have seen an outburst of interest in artificial intelligence. Technologies based on AI have attracted investors all over the world on an unprecedented scale. More and more smart services are becoming a reality. For example, Staples is u...

This report takes an initial look at methodologies to measure and estimate the monetary value of personal data, which is creating economic and social value at an increasing pace. But measuring and estimating its value is difficult. This is because not only a huge amount of personal data is being generated, but also as it is used in many different situations and for numerous purposes.

…and why are they selling it to other security vendors and product testers?

The post Professional data leakage: How did that security vendor get my personal data? appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Intrapersonal communication systems and methods that provide an optical digital signal link between two or more local devices are disclosed. In some embodiments, the system includes a first signal converter disposed at a first end of the optical digital signal link and configured to convert between electrical digital signals from a first local device and optical digital signals from the optical digital signal link. The system can include an optical connector having a non-contact portion configured to couple optical digital signals between the first signal converter and the optical digital signal link across a gap. The system can include a second signal converter disposed at a second end of the optical digital signal link and configured to convert between electrical digital signals from the second local device and optical digital signals from the optical digital signal link.

IN this podcast Thomas Domville shows us how to increase the security of your Google, Facebook, and other internet and social media accounts with Jumbo: Privacy + Security for iOS.

‎Jumbo: Privacy + Security on the App Store
https://apps.apple.com/no/app/jumbo-privacy/id1454039975

Today on Data Privacy Day, IBM is announcing an innovative cloud-based technology for developers to help consumers better protect their personal data online such as their date of birth, home address and credit card numbers. As cybersecurity threats and identity theft continue to threaten both consumers and businesses, IBM scientists have been developing a clever cryptographic algorithm which enables transactions to occur without involuntarily sharing any personal data.

As a general rule of data privacy protection in Hong Kong, personal data should be used only for the original purpose for which the data was collected, or a directly related purpose. One exception is where the data user obtains the consent from the ...

The high-tech doorbell maker's app is rife with unlisted third-party trackers that collect data from users' devices, according to a report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that the Obama administration, as part of successfully concluding negotiations on the E.U.-U.S. Data Protection and Privacy Agreement (DPPA), would seek to work with Congress to enact legislation that would provide E.U. citizens with the right to seek redress in U.S. courts if personal data shared with U.S. authorities by their home countries for law enforcement purposes under the proposed agreement is subsequently intentionally or willfully disclosed, to the same extent that U.S. citizens could seek judicial redress in U.S. courts for such disclosures of their own law enforcement information under the Privacy Act