ONLINE CONSUMER PRIVACY PROTECTION: A STUDY ON THE CONCERNS AND FUNCTIONAL LITERACY OF CONSUMERS ON THE LAWS ON PRIVACY PROTECTION

Table of Contents

1. Research Topic and Description ————————————————————  2
2. Aims and Objectives ————————————————————————–  3
3. Literature Review ——————————————————————————  4

3a. General Overview of Online Consumer Privacy ————————————–  4

3b. Categorization of Online Consumers Concerns on Privacy ————————-  5

3c. Legalities Surrounding Online Consumer Privacy ————————————  7

3d. Conclusion ———————————————————————————  9

References ————————————————————————————-  10

4. Critical Analysis of a Peer Reviewed Article ———————————————  11
5. Sample Bibliography of at least 20 additional sources ———————————-  14

1. RESEARCH TOPIC

The proposed researchable topic here is ONLINE CONSUMER PRIVACY PROTECTION: A STUDY ON THE CONCERNS AND FUNCTIONAL LITERACY OF CONSUMERS ON THE LAWS ON PRIVACY PROTECTION.

With the advancement of technology, the ability to be anywhere in the world and access anything has become quite easily possible. Thus, I may be in West Africa and be able to access and buy an item somewhere all the way down in South America and still be able to receive my item in my home in West Africa by just a few clicks on the computer and the provision of some information which would enable my item to be delivered to me by the company or business I am buying from which essentially makes me an online consumer of that company.

However, this ease has brought about various forms of issues and concerns which affect the privacy of online consumers. As the world continues to become globalized, the technological developments which we use everyday evolve as well and with it comes new fears and concerns. Online consumers have begun to have concerns about how their private and personal information is being used, handled and protected by the companies or businesses they have provided their information to.

This research topic deals not only with these concerns of the online consumers but also the capability of online consumers to fully understand what they sign up for when they agree to divulge their information and the laws put in place for the protection of their data as well as the ways in which these consumers can play a part in the protection of their data.

2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

As individuals and particularly as consumers, we want our private information to be respected and protected and we hope that where our personal information is given out to an organization or business, they protect such information given so that we do not incur any loss whatsoever by divulging our personal information in the course of transacting with such entity.

This research basically aims at looking at online consumer privacy protection first from a general perspective of what it means and entails and then gradually narrows it down to the consumers point of view, what the consumers understand as privacy protection and their concerns, to determine if online consumers know what exactly they may be signing up for when accepting to give their data to businesses either by way of cookies or inputting their data themselves while carrying out online transactions , to determine if consumers are aware of the laws on privacy protection and if they understand these laws and finally, to determine and provide suggestions as to what can be done by consumers to help protect their data.