User Rules on Data Disclosure

The adoption of e-commerce has caused a shift in the way that businesses interact with their consumers. Business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce websites allow users the convenience of making purchases without having to physically go to the retailer’s location. E-commerce practices involve the collection and use of user data for various purposes, from registration and transacting to providing suggested ads and recommendations. This collection and use of data brings up various privacy concerns for users, who may be unsure of how their data is being collected and used. Users may however have different awareness levels and tolerance for privacy risks. The current study examines the specific rules that users of B2C e-commerce websites have in place on information disclosure, and the measures that they take in order to minimize privacy risks on B2C e-commerce websites. The study applied Communication Privacy (CPM) Theory (Petronio, 2002) to e-commerce contexts and uses a qualitative research method in order to identify the rules and measures. The empirical evidence shows that while specific rules and measures vary for each individual user, there are a number of rules and measures that most users agree upon in the context of privacy on B2C e-commerce websites