Understanding Consumer Privacy: A Review and Future Directions

Academy of Marketing Science Review,  2008  by D, Clinton Jr,  Saini, Amit

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TABLE 1

Summary of Consumer Privacy Literature

Conceptualizations of Consumer Privacy

As with the general notion of privacy, consumer privacy is an abstract concept that encompasses many different aspects and concerns. However, despite the persistent ambiguity and evolution of the notion of consumer privacy in the literature, it still remains an important issue and one that must be understood in order to manage the relationship between consumers and firms effectively.

Definition of Consumer Privacy - Initial attempts to define consumer privacy build upon the early definition of privacy as the right to be left alone and the later conceptualizations of privacy as control over social encounters and personal information. For instance, Goodwin (1991) defines consumer privacy as "the consumer's ability to control (a) presence of other people in the environment during a market transaction or consumption behavior and (b) dissemination of information related to or provided during such transactions or behaviors to those who were not present" (p.152). The first part of the definition focuses on the social aspects of consumer privacy and deals with control over the presence of others in the consumer's environment. Specifically, this part of the definition pertains primarily to intrusions by marketers (via telephone, mail, person, etc.) into the consumer's environment, though it could include the presence of other consumers in the market environment (Milne and Gordon 1993). The second part of the definition focuses on the information aspects of consumer privacy and deals with consumer control over the information they provide to firms (Jones 1991). Specifically, this part of the definition pertains to marketers' use of consumer information, especially uses that go beyond the intent of the original disclosure.

Privacy based on these two types of control (i.e., social control and information control) give rise to four privacy states: 1) total control, 2) environmental control, 3) disclosure control, and 4) no control (Goodwin 1991). Total control represents situations in which consumers maintain control over both the presence of others in the environment and use of their personal information. This situation represents the highest degree of privacy and requires the least amount of privacy protection (Goodwin 1991). Environmental control represents situations in which consumers control the presence of others in the environment, but do not maintain control over the use of their personal information. Disclosure control represents situations in which consumers maintain control over the use of their personal information, but not the presence of others in the environment. Both of these conditions represent moderate amounts of privacy and require some privacy protection (Goodwin 1991). No control represents situations in which consumers control neither the presence of others in their environment nor the use of their personal information. This represents the lowest degree of privacy and requires the most amount of privacy protection (Goodwin 1991).