An inter-disciplinary perspective on the information privacy issue in a global environment

Abstract

The world economic system's transformation from a dominantly massproduction model, to a mass-customisation model is seen as creating a demand for personal information on consumers. This has lead many consumers to feel the need to protect their information because businesses request personal information during commercial transactions. This conceptual paper addresses information privacy as a marketing-related issue with an inter-disciplinary nature and aims to illustrate how marketing and economics can work together in a more cohesive manner. The information privacy issue is presented as striking a fair balance between the privacy interests of consumers, the financial interests of businesses, and the sustainability of an economy in the global environment. The paper concludes that consumer information privacy will always remain an issue of protection for consumers, an ethical issue for marketers, and is fast becoming an issue of social responsibility for government.