Collecting and Using Personal Data Essay

Privacy is one of the fundamental rights of every human being. Therefore, any cases of violation of the right for privacy attract people’s attention. The activities of supermarkets, groceries, restaurants, and online service providers are consistently connected with the violation of this right but they cause different levels of protest or concern among the customers. This paper focuses on the assessment of the findings of the research by Graeff & Harmon (2002) related to the topic of privacy concerns and demographical and online variations in these concerns.

Overall, the article by Graeff & Harmon (2002) touches upon the topic that seems to be familiar to every single person, even though the majority of people have no idea that they face it. It is the topic of collecting and using the personal data of their clients by various trade organizations, retail stores, supermarkets, restaurants and other service providers that use electronic, credit, etc. cards or online offer options in their activities (Phelps, Nowak, and Ferrell 2000). Using these devices, the organizations mentioned above become able of monitoring for instance purchasing behaviors or habits of their customers, see how much of a product one buys, at what rate of frequency, etc.

The data collected this way are used in various ways by the organizations. The stores or supermarkets can use them to monitor demand developments and see the trends in behavioral habits of every single customer to match his/her personal demands and preferences. Customers, in their turn, are hardly concerned about these data collection procedures and often they do not even know that credit or discount cards can be used to invade someone’s privacy and collect data that one wishes to be confidential (Phelps, Nowak, and Ferrell 2000). The attitudes of the customers to the possible sales of their personal data to other organizations are more negative and the majority of them report the wish that the government should control these processes.

As have been said above, the majority of customers are either unaware of the procedures for collecting their personal data or do not object to these procedures as they consider them to be useful for the cooperation of stores and customers:

Consumers generally do not believe that marketers are concerned with consumer privacy issues, and have negative perceptions of marketers who attempt to record too much personal information. Yet, even though consumers feel that some marketers already know too much about them, consumers agree that the more marketers know about them, the more useful their catalogs and promotional messages become (Graeff & Harmon, 2002).

Thus, it is obvious that the issue of private data collection has not yet got the wide public discussion and consideration. The customers either do not know about the violation of their privacy or are reluctant to respond to it thinking that private data collected by stores will help them present better services to the customers. Moreover, taking into consideration the fact that the bulk of the customers never really take their time to think of the consequences of the stores actions, Graeff & Harmon (2002) are not surprised that the customers questioned come to know about the privacy data collection only during the research as such.

Privacy concerns among the customers include various areas like private data, address, telephone number, marital status, and other data collection (Phelps, Nowak, and Ferrell, 2000). However, behavioral habits or purchase behaviors comprise another interesting area: “Today’s technology allows for even more extensive data gathering and invasions of privacy. Basic database programs can be merged to provide an in-depth portrait of an individual’s purchase behaviors” (Graeff & Harmon 2002). The customers are rarely concerned about these data being retrieved as they see no ham in them and even suppose these data to enable the stores to improve their services. Compared to other private data collection areas, i. e. addresses or phone numbers, these data cause the least degree of concern possible.

Accordingly, the customers are far less likely to refuse buying something based on the possibility of collecting their private data on purchase behaviors: “Traditional retailers using discount cards and store (retailer) credit cards to track purchase behaviors should see relatively less resistance derived from privacy concerns” (Graeff & Harmon 2002). Thus, the study by Graeff & Harmon (2002) has not found much concerns among the customers as for purchase behaviors and the impact of the private data on the latter: “Thus, it is not clear if purchase behaviors using the Internet are influenced more by privacy concerns or access to the Internet” (Graeff & Harmon, 2002). Nevertheless, considerable variations have been found in demographic and internet related privacy concerns of customers.

The first interesting outcome, that actually proves to be true even when an ordinary person, not a scholar, pays attention to the privacy concerns, evidences that the level of income and overall wellbeing influence privacy concern issues: “For example, Wang and Petrison (1993) found that inner city residents, people of color and those with lower than average incomes were less concerned about consumer privacy issues” (Graeff & Harmon, 2002). The age influences privacy concerns as well, and older customers report much interest in privacy, while younger ones see no serious harm in collecting their private information by stores and other organizations. In respect of gender, males are far less concerned with their privacy and are more willing to share private data for the potentially beneficial outcomes than females.

In respect of internet based purchases, both demographic factors and privacy concerns prove to be more influential (Miyazaki and Fernandez, 2000). This can be explained by the differences that age groups have in using the Internet, by various Internet access opportunities, etc (Sheehan and Hoy 2000). The youngest groups of Internet users agree on data collection: “In studies of Internet users, younger respondents (13-25 years) have even indicated a positive view toward the collection of information for marketing purposes if given a choice and compensated for their loss of privacy” (Graeff & Harmon 2002). The senior citizens are more careful about privacy data as 62% of the respondents of Graeff & Harmon (2002) research did not support privacy data collection and stated that the government needs to control this process.

Thus, the research by Graeff & Harmon (2002) shows that consumers differ in their attitudes towards privacy data collection based on demographic factors including age, sex, income level, as well as on the social factors like profession, access to the internet and the attitudes to one’s privacy. As far as privacy is one of the fundamental rights of every human being, it should be considered by all organizations that collect and use private data of their consumers either for internal development or for sale to their partners. Only the collection of data permitted by the customers can be considered legal, although nowadays the bulk of customers are unaware of the fact that stores, supermarkets, etc. collect their data. Further research is needed to study the topic of privacy concerns and inform the public properly on the issue.

Reference List

1. Graeff, T. R., & Harmon, S. 2002, ‘Collecting and using personal data: consumers’ awareness and concerns’, Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 19, no. 4/5, pp. 302–318.
2. Miyazaki, A.D, Fernandez, A. 2000, ‘Internet privacy and security: an examination of online retailer disclosures’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, vol. 19 no.1, pp.54-61.
3. Phelps, J, Nowak, G, Ferrell, E. 2000, ‘Privacy concerns and consumer willingness to provide personal information’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, vol. 19 no. 1, pp.27-41.
4. Sheehan, K.B, Hoy, M.G. 2000, ‘Dimensions of privacy concern among online consumers’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, vol. 19 no.1, pp.62-73.