An Evaluation of Consumer Privacy Protection in E-Commerce Websites: A Comparative Study of Six E-Stores: Part I

Abstract

. E-visitors visiting E-Stores are generally at the mercy of E-merchants when it comes to the private data they have to make available. Web vendors are capable of have secondary uses for their information, viz. data mining or spam lists. The consumer's relative privacy protection of six major Web stores based in Europe and North America is reviewed and reviewed by means of the framework proposed. A descriptive type of research design was used. A categorization of consumer privacy protection mechanisms was discussed about four areas: fair information practices, buyer flexibility, technology, and external regulation. An online questionnaire for the evaluation of consumer privacy in E-Commerce was hosted on http://www.surveymonkey.com The highest score in our E-Store appraisal, 73.16%, corresponded to ebookers, a Swiss Web store, while the least one, 60.53%, belonged to Amazon, an American E-retailer. Amazon could barely contest 88.46% of the points attained by its next contender, Chapters, a Canadian retail company. The left over four E-vendors were reasonably close to each other, with an average of 70.66% amid them. As limitations of the sample privacy evaluation, the consequent concerns were acknowledged: Some features could not be appropriately established. Most of the information employed for the investigation initiated from what the E-merchants said about themselves on their E-Stores. Web sites were predominantly appraised with a black box approach. In this article, some factors that proficiently provide privacy protection were examined and a relative analysis of six major E-Stores was carried out vis-à-vis e-consumer privacy protection in E-Commerce websites. This paper provides a positive overview of a scenario of consumer privacy protection in case of E-Commerce websites by carrying out relative assessment of six major E-Stores and transforming “digital challenges” like risk in E-Commerce into “digital opportunities.”