Information privacy concern at individual, group, organization and societal level - a literature review

Abstract

Purpose In today’s digitized environment, information privacy has become a prime concern for everybody. The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of information privacy concern arising because of the application of computer-based information system in the various domains (E-Governance, E-Commerce, E-Health, E-Banking and E-Finance), and at different levels, i.e. individual, group, organizational and societal. Design/methodology/approach The authors performed an in-depth analysis of different research articles related to information privacy concerns and elements affecting those at certain level of applications. The primary sources of literature were articles retrieved from online databases. Various online journal and scholarly articles were searched in detail to locate information privacy-related articles. Findings The authors have carried out a detailed literature review to identify the different levels where the privacy is a big challenging task. This paper provides insights whether information privacy concern may obstruct in the successful dispersal and adoption of different applications in various application domains. Consumers’ attitude towards information privacy concerns have enlightened and addressed at individual levels in numerous domains. Privacy concerns at the individual level, as suggested by our analysis, seem to have been sufficiently addressed or addressed. However, information privacy concerns at other levels – group, organizational and societal levels – need the attention of researchers. Originality/value In this paper, the authors have posited that it will help the researchers to more focus at group level privacy perspective in the information privacy era.