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Online privacy and informed consent: The dilemma of information asymmetry
Author(s) -
Bashir Masooda,
Hayes Carol,
Lambert April D.,
Kesan Jay P.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
proceedings of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2373-9231
DOI - 10.1002/pra2.2015.145052010043
Subject(s) - internet privacy , voluntariness , personally identifiable information , information privacy , computer science , the internet , privacy software , dilemma , key (lock) , comprehension , informed consent , privacy by design , privacy policy , world wide web , computer security , political science , law , philosophy , epistemology , programming language , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
Every day billions of users allow cloud‐based internet services to collect, store, and manage their personal information. The use of this information is constrained only by long, wordy privacy agreements that users likely did not read before clicking “Agree.” Even if they were to read them, would users understand these policies? We present the results of a two‐part privacy survey that assessed users’ knowledge and opinions of online privacy issues. We asked users not only what they think, but what they know. Results expose several key knowledge gaps, demonstrating a problem of information asymmetry between users and internet services providers, and strong dissatisfaction with the current system. These findings demonstrate that there is insufficient comprehension and voluntariness in the consent process for users to give informed consent to the collection and management of their personal information, which may in part explain the “privacy paradox.”