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Privacy concerns in E-commerce: A taxonomy and a future research agenda

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Abstract

Safeguarding consumer privacy is a key challenge for the growth of e-commerce. The dramatic technological changes advanced by online platforms, big data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, virtual assistants, and blockchain technology are transforming the way we shop online. This paradigm shift in e-commerce has only intensified the perplexities of privacy issues. Corresponding to the growing concerns of privacy in practice, research in this area has surged during the last two decades. The aim of this paper is to review the current state of consumer privacy research in business to consumer e-commerce and thereby understand what has been studied, what is omitted, and what potential research areas have emerged in the course of transformational technological changes. We conducted a systematic review of behavioral studies published on analyzing privacy concerns at the individual level during the last 20 years. We methodically analyzed the selected literature using the thematic analysis technique. The results revealed eight main themes. We present a taxonomy of consumer privacy concerns and a research agenda that could lead to a more cohesive and comprehensive understanding of privacy dynamics in e-commerce.

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Table 1 Appendix: Studies on identified themes

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Bandara, R., Fernando, M. & Akter, S. Privacy concerns in E-commerce: A taxonomy and a future research agenda. Electron Markets 30, 629–647 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-019-00375-6

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