Abstract
Motivated by advances in mass customization in business practice, explosion in the number of internet of things devices, and the lack of published research on privacy differentiation and customization, we propose a contextual information relevance model of privacy. We acknowledge the existence of individual differences with respect to unique security and privacy protection needs. We observe and argue that it is unfair and socially inefficient to treat privacy in a uniform (or less differentiated) manner whereby a large proportion of the population remain unsatisfied by a common policy. Our research results provide quantifiable means to measure and evaluate the customized privacy. We show that with privacy differentiation, the social planner will observe increases in demand and overall social welfare. Our results also show that business practitioners could profit from privacy customization.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
J. Thomas McCarthy, The Rights of Publicity and Privacy, 5.59 (2nd ed. 2005).
Radio Frequency IDentification technology that allows fully automatic and touchless tracking/tracing of merchandise, transportation, and even living beings.
Kang, supra note 131, 1202–1203
References
Albrecht, K. (2008). How RFID tags could be used to track unsuspecting people. Scientific American, 299(3), 72–77.
Barnes, B., Bonalle, D.S., Saunders, P.D. (2005). Method and system for facilitating a shopping experience. United States Patent Application, 20050038718, February 17.
BBC. (2010). Conservative liberal democrats deal. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8677933.stm. Accessed 10 May 2014.
Bowie, N. E., & Jamal, K. (2006). Privacy rights on the internet: Self-regulation or government regulation? Business Ethics Quarterly, 16, 323–342.
Drake, M. J., & Schlachter, J. T. (2008). A virtue-ethics analysis of supply chain collaboration. Journal of Business Ethics, 82, 851–864.
EEA. (2001). Late lessons from early warnings: The precautionary principle 1896–2000. European Environmental Agency.
Gavison, R. (1980). Privacy and the limits of law. Yale Law Journal, 89(3), 421–471.
Gouvea, R., Linton, J. D., Montoya, M., & Walsh, S. T. (2012). Emerging technologies and ethics: A race-to-the-bottom or the top? Journal of Business Ethics, 109, 553–567.
Hoch, Stephen J., Bradlow, Eric T., & Wansink, Brian. (1999). The variety of an assortment. Marketing Science, 18(4), 527–546.
Hossain, M. A. (2009). RFID in National ID Cards: A privacy concern. Proceedings of the Fifth Asia-Pacific Computing and Philosophy Conference (AP-CAP).
Jedidi, Kamel, Jagpal, Sharan, & Manchanda, Puneet. (2003). Measuring heterogenous reservation prices for product bundles. Marketing Science, 22, 107–130.
Jones, P., Clarke-Hill, C., Hillier, D., Shears, P., & Comfort, D. (2004). Radio frequency identification in retailing and privacy and public policy issues. Management Research News, 27(8/9), 46–56.
Jourard, S. M. (1966). Some psychological aspects of privacy. Law and Contemporary Problems, 31(2), 307–318.
Karygiannis, T., Eydt, B., Barber, G., Bunn, L., & Phillips, T. (2007). Guidelines for Securing RFID Systems. Recommendations of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Special Publication 800–898.
Kelly, E. P., & Erickson, G. S. (2005). RFID tags: Commercial applications vs. privacy rights. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 105(6), 703–713.
Kupfer, J. (1987). Privacy autonomy, and self concept. American Philosophical Quarterly, 24(1), 81–82.
Lambrecht, A., & Skiera, B. (2006). Paying too much and being happy about it: Existence, causes and consequences of tarif choice biases. Journal of Marketing Research, 43, 212–223.
Laurence, A., & Free, C. (2006). Marketing dataveillance and digital privacy: Using theories of justice to understand consumers’ online privacy concerns. Journal of Business Ethics, 67(2), 107–123.
Lucas, D. I., & Pouloudi, A. (1999). Privacy in the information age: Stakeholders interests and values. Journal of Business Ethics, 22(1), 27–38.
Martin, K. D., & Johnson, J. L. (2008). A framework for ethical conformity in marketing. Journal of Business Ethics, 80, 103–109.
Martin, K. E. (2012). Diminished or just different? A factorial vignette study of privacy as a social contract. Journal of Business Ethics, 111, 519–539.
Parent, W. A. (1983). Recent work on the concept of privacy. American Philosophical Quarterly, 20(4), 341–355.
Parker, R. B. (1974). A definition of privacy. Rutgers Law Review, 27(1), 275–296.
Parks, R., CHU, C.-H., & Xu, H. (2010). RFID information privacy issues in healthcare: Exploring the roles of technologies and regulations. Journal of Information Privacy and Security, 6(3), 3–28.
Peslak, A. R. (2005). An ethical exploration of privacy and radio frequency identification. Journal of Business Ethics, 59(4), 327–345.
Posner, R. (1978). The right to privacy. Georgia Law Review, 12, 393–422.
Schmalensee, R. (1981). Monopolistic two-part pricing arrangements. Bell Journal of Economics, 12(2), 445–466.
Solove, D. J. (2002). Conceptualizing privacy. California Law Review, 90(4), 1087–1156.
Som, C., Hilty, L. M., & Köhler, A. R. (2009). The precautionary principle as a framework for a sustainable information society. Journal of Business Ethics, 85, 493–505.
Spinello, R. A. (1998). Privacy rights in the information economy. Business Ethics Quarterly, 8(4), 723–742.
Sundararajan, A. (2004). Nonlinear pricing of information goods. Management Science, 50(12), 1660–1673.
Tirole, J. (1988). The theory of industrial organization: Jean Tirole. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Wang, H., Lee, M. K., & Wang, C. (1998). Consumer privacy concerns about Internet marketing. Communications of the ACM, 41(3), 63–70.
Wasieleski, D. M., & Gal-Or, M. (2008). An enquiry into the ethical efficacy of the use of radio frequency identification technology. Journal of Business Ethics, 10, 27–40.
Waters, R. (2006). US Group Implants Electronic Tags in Workers. Financial Times.Retreived February 12, from http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/ec414700-9bf4-11da-8baa-0000779e2340.html.
Weissert, W. (2004). Chip Implanted in Mexican Judicial Workers. Associated Press. Retreived July 14, from http://www.infowars.com/print/bb/judicial_employees_implanted.htm.
Zhou, W., & Piramuthu, S. (2012). Technology regulation policy for business ethics: An example of RFID in supply chain management. Journal of Business Ethics, 116, 327–340.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhou, W., Piramuthu, S. Information Relevance Model of Customized Privacy for IoT. J Bus Ethics 131, 19–30 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2248-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2248-y