Privacy in e-commerce | Course Paper

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Running head: M-COMMERCE PRIVACY 1

M-Commerce Privacy

Areej Alsaadi

Noora Alobaidan

Seattle Pacific University

Author Note

Areej Alsaadi and Noora Alobaidan, School of Business, Government, &

Economics

Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Areej Alsaadi and

Noora Alobaidan, School of Business, Government, & Economics, Seattle Pacific

University, 3307 3rd Ave. W., Seattle, WA 98119. Contact: alsaadia@spu.edu,

alobaidann@spu.edu

M-COMMERCE PRIVACY 2

Abstract

In a technology world, mobility has changed the way of doing business. Commerce is

now extended beyond being electronic. It is called m-commerce (mobile commerce)

which has the ubiquity aspect. Mobile devices are presenting an opportunity for

businesses to have a competitive advantage, and also to create an easy access for their

customers. M-commerce has been popular because customers tend to like easiness.

Moreover, the revolution in smartphone devices has a major impact on m-commerce by

having a high speed connectivity and advanced computing capabilities. On the other

hand, businesses should attract and retain their customers by building trust. In fact, trust

is the common part in any relationship. However, as technology evolves, issues arise in

parallel. There are many concerns regarding privacy, security, ethic, taxation issues, and

the difference between e-commerce and m-commerce perspectives which are identified in

this paper to insure a healthy and legal growth of m-commerce.

Keywords: m-commerce, mobile devices, privacy, security, taxation, consumer

concerns.

M-COMMERCE PRIVACY 3

Introduction:

Even Black Friday is online! E-commerce, which is buying and selling

electronically, is now one of the trends in Information Technology. It is a new way of

doing business by using electronic means. Even Black Friday that cannot be imagined

without crowed and long lines, is now in cyber. In fact, World Wide Web is determining

the presence of the company. Moreover, there are many types of e-commerce: business to

business, business to consumer, business to government, government to business,

government to consumer, government to government, consumer to business, consumer to

government, and consumer to consumer. In addition, m-commerce includes doing

business and carrying out transactions through mobile devices. There are numbers of

steps that are needed to be implemented before embracing the cyber environment. For

instance, businesses should analyze the benefits, the cost, and the design of online

environment. Furthermore, risk of moving the business to be mobile must be identified.

To illustrate, risks and issues includes competitiveness, security, and online fraud,

hackers, or viruses. Above all, trust and customer perspective ought to be enhanced.

Customers are the most important part in business, so the mobile website must have a

positive impact on them. They should feel safe as they feel at physical stores. Moreover,

customers need to feel the products and services by engaging their senses through an

attractive interface. They also must feel secure in order to provide their personal and

financial information. M-commerce increases the number of users who using internet on

the mobile devices. Consequently, it increases the number of mobility challenges. In fact,

challenges change the way which businesses undertake to conduct their online

M-COMMERCE PRIVACY 4

transactions. Thus, businesses must make the right choice and cost-benefit trade off.

Many issues can be affecting m-commerce such as privacy, security, and taxation.

Literature Review:

Consumer Privacy:

Privacy is monitoring the access of personal information by others. In fact,

trust is the valuable element in any relationship. Moreover, since mobile devices

are facing serious threats by hackers for instance, businesses should concern about

privacy as a policy. In addition, there is no specific mechanism that can be

implemented to insure a secure web since technology is evolving. Moreover, m-

commerce aims to facilitate the sharing of information. Another fact about the

mobile web, which is a single source of big data, is that data mining and

warehousing have become more accessible and affordable compared to the

physical means. However, privacy can have many dimensions. First, the

environmental control which is the ability to control the surrounding during a web

transaction. Therefore, consumers will feel safe while typing their card number in

the website. Second, the secondary use of information which implies the ability

for consumers to control their information and behaviors from those who were not

part of the transaction. To illustrate, consumers know the fact that their

information is gathered and analyzed. Consequently, businesses might sell their

consumers information to a third party without their permission. Furthermore,

each web transaction will have both economic and social contract. The economic

contract is including financial elements and regulating by law, but the social

contract is unspecified obligation which is difficult to regulate. Social contract

M-COMMERCE PRIVACY 5

might include storing personal information without the consumer’s notice. In fact,

the factors that prevent consumers from using the web is the social aspects instead

of the economic ones. As a result, businesses are trying to build trust and motivate

their customers to use their web application by providing them with a choice. To

illustrate, consumers have the choice to engage in a transaction that gives no

identity information about the sender (traceable anonymity), or a transaction that

gives the recipient unreal name of the sender (traceable pseudonymity). However,

such a transaction with anonymity and pseudonymity will be a barrier to a long

relationship which builds on trust, loyalty, and commitment. Thus, privacy is a

controversial issue in the m-commerce world. (Hoffman, Novak, &Peralta, 2000)

Web Security: