Actual Conditions of Consumer Attitudes toward the Use of Personal Data

Consumer Precautionary Attitudes and the Right to Self-Information Control

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify how consumers feel about the collection and commercial use of personal data (specifically, personal behavioral history data such as Web search and browsing, purchase history, and smartphone location data) by companies through a questionnaire survey. For this aim, we focus on the following two points. (1) consumers' precautionary attitudes toward personal information, and (2) consumers' attitudes toward control of personal information. The results revealed the following: consumers who use both their real names and anonymity when using social networking services are more concerned about their own and others' privacy; the desired control over one's own information differs in emphasis depending on age; and those with low privacy awareness are more likely to emphasize " limiting the length of time information " is retained.