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Online Shoppers are Willing to Pay More for Privacy
Caroline Matische writes "People are willing to pay more to buy items from online retailers who make their privacy policies clear, a new Carnegie Mellon University study showed. People were more likely to buy from online merchants with good privacy policies and were also willing to pay about 60 cents extra on a $15 purchase when buying from a site with a privacy policy they liked."
Isn't the notion of a "company respecting user privacy" illusory? In other words, when you give your private information away, you're not giving it to another person. You're giving it to a corporation. If the management changes, if the shareholders demand a greater quarterly return, the same company can alter their "privacy policies" and sell all the information they like. Sure, a random user can sue, but can they afford the same kind of attorneys as the company? There's an old proverb about "what you whisper in your room will be shouted from the rooftops". I don't think that changes in the internet age. Jed Check out the Ad-Supported Music Central blog: http://ad-supported-music.blogspot.com/
You know, that was my initial reaction too. However, I don't think that's the notion that's conveyed by the study -- I'd like to think that it means merchants who protect privacy to begin with are rewarded for it. Unfortunately, I do suspect that this will translate into "how much more can I charge because I post a rigid and thorough privacy policy?"
I am, therefore you think.
I'm sorry, but personal data is worth money. So, inherently, the bad companies make more money, even if they sell a little less. This can keep their price down. Of course, I won't buy from them, and I find that good quality service is more or less linear with good privacy. Other buyers fortunately think so as well. So the good companies still have a business case, but they are somewhat more expensive most of the time.
Just compare it with television. The ones with the most (annoying) commercials make the most money, and have the blockbuster movies first.
It varies, depending on to whom you give your information.
In most of Europe, companies are bound by laws implementing the EU's Data Protection Directive, which makes it clear that your data is not just another asset of the company which collects it, and that companies can only process it for the purposes for which you gave them the data.
In the US, companies howl with outrage at the prospect that they should treat their customers with similar fairness. You could argue that resisting even the smallest extra expense is in the short term interests of their shareholders. Of course that ignore the possibility that ethical policies may increase customer loyalty, and better serve their shareholders' longer term interests - as well as being "The Right Thing".
There is a lot of nonsense spoken about "impersonal corporations". Folk forget that it's actual human beings who make the "decisions of the corporation". Some of those people do good and some do evil.
Maybe they should be held to account?
Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"
http://www.cpsr.org/issues/privacy/whyPrivacy