E-Commerce Privacy and Security: Degree of Awareness Among College Students
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Klaus Schmidt
and
Maria Canabal, Illinois State University, United States
Friday, October 18 4:00 PM-5:00 PM Location: Salon 3
Presider:
Lisa Langille, Acadia University, Canada
Abstract: Two main issues related to the participation in electronic commerce are the assurance to consumers that their transactions are secure and their privacy protected. Very little information is available about consumer awareness of safeguards to protect them from privacy and security related frauds. The proposed experimental study will create simulated e-commerce web sites (one secured, one unsecured) to find out the degree of awareness and knowledge of college students about the privacy and security of their transactions. Once the student logs on to the computer, she is randomly assigned to one of the two versions of a web site dividing the sample in two groups. The sample will be drawn from students taking classes with the researchers during the Fall semester of 2002. Descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance will be used to analyze the data. The findings of this study can be used for consumer education and public policy recommendation purposes.