The Perspectives of Ateneo de Davao University Grade 12 STEM Learners toward

Personal Information Used for Infomercials and Advertisements in Social Media:

A Qualitative Inquiry

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This study focused on ascertaining the perspectives of Ateneo de Davao

University Grade 12 STEM learners toward personal information used for infomercials

and advertisements in social media. To support this, this literature review will discuss

the results of previous related studies conducted regarding the topic.

Privacy Concerns. Expanding online data collection, which allows advertisers

and others to disseminate messages to precisely targeted audiences, causes the

people who use the internet to become progressively anxious (Sage, 2016). According

to the Pew Research Center’s (as cited in Sage, 2016) Internet & American Life Project,

81% of parents expressed concern over the information collected by advertisers about

teenagers’ online activities. Meanwhile, Sage (2016) discusses that some critics worry

about the political organizations’ ability to collect enormous amounts of information

about individual voters, through social media and traditional means then crunch it and

use the results to send finely tuned messages to narrowly targeted audiences,

considering that it is a highly intrusive invasion of privacy. Farnam (as cited in Sage

2016) explains that campaigns can identify individuals’ browsing habits, online

purchases, social media discussions, data about friends, and other information by

accruing information from social media and offline sources. Udo (2001) stresses that

people lost their self-belief on the internet because of inconsistency of security of the
data, which is understandable as some companies sell their customers’ data. The

primary concern of web users who are purchasing over the web is privacy and security.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the privacy and safety concerns of customers

and to establish a general agreement among them. Therewithal, Miyazaki & Fernandez

(2005) found out that with the new generation of internet users, it has been

acknowledged that their perceptions regarding net privacy and security is quite a trouble

for them in the context of online shopping interest, smartphone and mail-order buying.

While also tackling the dangers of online buying. Especially when handling with online

buying in social media, since the users’ personal information is needed when

transactioning online as well as finding relationships between the hypothesis of

consumer tiers of internet enjoyment with online transactions. Bailey (as cited in Sage,

2016) remarks that apprehension about the utilization of online data to find individuals

with specific traits, by random people, has been escalated by a new technology.

Currently, facebook launches a tool enabling public searching of its vast database such

as graph search which permits finding one’s personal information.The searches might

expand to messages and posts eventually. Sage (2016) points out that as companies

construct dossiers on their clients to offer personalized products and services, as well

as to target advertising or sell the information to others, recurrent synthesis of online

data with offline data occurs across the globe. A study conducted by Sage (2016)

revealed that records from phone companies can be used to identify a unit’s location

any time, down to a specific floor in a specific building. It has also been discovered that

third-party applications were collecting the users’ data which is then is distributed to

advertisers, which is quite contrary to Facebook’s EULA. According to Bellman,

Johnson, Kobrin & Lohse (2010), there are 3 distinguishing factors as to why internet

privacy concerns differ from user to user, namely the differences in cultural value which

could change over time, the users’ internet experience, and the users’ political institution

which could have a difference in their privacy preference. All these are factors to be

highly considered when researching about information privacy concerns. Since the

researchers would have to consider that some users are more lose and carefree than

others with regards to privacy issues.

User-Induced Privacy Concerns. Personal consumer information has been met

with a quite paradox within its own coverage. The “privacy paradox” happens when an

online consumer complains that he or she has no control over his own personal

information, while they knowingly give personal information with their own will.

Commercial interest maximize such a potential by giving infomercials based on the

users’ personal information or activity. It is quite noticeable that this is a case of a non-

transparent communication between the platform and the user. Which is why principles

are established before entering the platform, but it is the users’ responsibility to read

and comprehend their privileges and rules they have to acknowledge while using said

platform (Norberg, Horne & Horne, 2007).

Economy and Personal Information. Technology has no doubt shaped our

economy, however, most users still have concerns with information privacy when

conducting an online purchase (Malhotra, Kim & Agarwal, 2004). In this technologically

advanced society, e-businesses require personal information and trust that their

information would not be tampered with. That is why users in this age constantly

struggle to build such trust and would go to further lengths just to protect their
information, since the users think that the businesses demand too much personal

information without their knowledge (Chen & Rea Jr., 2016).

Personal Information Market Price. The damage of having personal

information stolen can take months or even years to restore. This information is very

valuable in the black market. The problem arises because as of today, criminals can

now purchase stolen information for much cheaper prices. The reason why it’s getting

cheaper is because it’s getting ever so easier to steal personal information (Keeper,

2018). Stack (2018) discusses that not everything in the deep dark web is composed of

illegal activities, but even still, it’s a great place for identity thieves to make money of

stolen information after a data breach or hacking incident. Even still, people

underestimate how valuable information is to these criminals, because they can be sold

for a relatively large sum of money. Information from diplomas can sell for as much as

$400 or ₱21,381.52, and passports can sell for as much as $2000 or ₱106,913.46. Four

factors come into account in determining the cost of the information sold on the dark

web, which are the type and demand of data, supply of given data, the balance of

accounts with regards to credit cards, and reusability. It’s important to be vigilant of

information given. Although breaches are out of the users’ control, it’s still important to

practice keeping personal information vague when possible.

Countermeasures. According to Zyskind (2015), it has been observed that there

has been an increase of reported privacy breaches incident in the form of surveillances

and protection breaches. That is why certain platforms have enforced a decentralized

non-public data management to give the users control of their personal records. As well

as a blockchain that protect personal data that hold commands, including storage and
sharing statistics. Hann, Hui, Lee & Png (2014) stresses that the recent rise of the

usage of internet has made the use of personal information much easier, and often can

even be unintended by the users. Worries of businesses collecting and therefore

misusing personal information while users are online have become an issue and so,

organizations have tried to mitigate this issue in two different ways. Firstly, by allowing

the users to read the organization’s rules before proceeding to submit information, also

known as privacy policies. Second, is by giving users benefits like convenience and

finance. Sage (2016) discusses that internet companies adopted certain restrictions on

the tracking of the users’ online activity due to the strong urge of the FTC, and on a later

date, the FTC then addressed the mobile industry to improve the privacy safeguards in

their smartphones and apps. After some time, a certain ban has been implemented in

six states, in which employers can no longer demand that the employees and job

applicants reveal their social media passwords, so the employers can review their

online activity. According to Culnan & Armstrong (1999), businesses that require the

users’ personal information could cause privacy concerns for the users, since an

established relationship between the platform and the user is needed for a business to

gain an advantage in quality assurance. That is why an open-ended and transparent

methodology is needed for the platform to gather such information from their users.

There are two ways to gain such trust, one is namely having procedural fairness in their

methods. The other is to establish that such a business practices fair information to their

users in which they are notified on how their information is being used, while being able

to decide whether or not they agree to their information being used in that certain

manner. Furthermore, Stack (2018) explains that countermeasures like having a strong
unrecognizable password will make sure that the user is safe from hi-jackers or

malwares that will steal their data. Another safe and assured way of not getting hacked

is to not visit unfamiliar websites.

Gathering Information Privacy Data. As of today, there are many theories and

studies regarding privacy, although most of them are purely descriptive and are not

done in an empirical way. Information gained from empirical studies could add more

context to studies regarding privacy and could therefore add great value to studies

regarding privacy. Positive empirical studies will be the most valuable if they focus on

antecedents related to concerns regarding privacy, and the outcomes thereof (Smith,

Dinev & Xu, 2011). According to Smith (1996), when researching about information

privacy, it has been proven that asking the participants about their practices and

perceptions was more effective in gathering information for this kind of research.

Empirical approaches were not effective since there were no valid instruments to

measure the concern of the users. With the use of a 15-item questionnaire the collecting

of data was more effective, due to it being more generalized and readable with a more

clear cut relationship to the problem that is being solved since questions were direct to

the point.

The aforementioned literature showed and described the privacy concerns of the

users of the internet, primarily the social media platform users. Therewithal is the

relationship of the economy with personal information, the market price of personal

information, the possible countermeasures to be observed to pacify the existing issue,

and the methodology of gathering the data necessary for the research study being

conducted. It can be said that internet users are worried about the collection and
utilization of their personal information for business purposes, and that privacy is indeed

sought after by the people within the premises of cyberspace, wherein one’s

vulnerability of private space is at a high level.

References

Bellman, S., Johnson, E., Kobrin, S., & Lohse, G. (2010). International

differences in information privacy concerns: A global survey of consumers.

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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01972240490507956

Chen, K., & Rea Jr., A. (2016). Protecting personal information online: A survey of user

privacy concerns and control techniques. Retrieved on August 10, 2018 from

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08874417.2004.11647599

Culnan, M., & Armstrong, P. (1999). Information privacy concerns, procedural fairness,
 and impersonal trust: An empirical investigation. Retrieved on August 5, 2018

from https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/orsc.10.1.104

Hann, H., Hui, K., Lee, S., & Png, I. (2014). Overcoming online information privacy

concerns: An information-processing theory approach. Retrieved on August 5,

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Keeper. (2018). How much is your information worth to a hacker via the dark web?

Retrieved on August 8, 2018 from

https://keepersecurity.com/how-much-is-my-information-worth-to-hacker-dark-we

B.html

Norberg, P., Horne, D., & Horne, D. (2007). The privacy paradox: Personal information

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https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-6606.2006.00070.x

Malhotra, N., Kim, S., & Agarwal, J. (2004). Internet users' information privacy concerns

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Miyazaki, A., & Fernandez, A. (2005). Consumer perceptions of privacy and security

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Sage. (2016). Issues in media (3rd ed., pp. 26-92). United States of America.

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Smith, J. (1996). Information privacy: Measuring individuals' concerns about

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https://www.jstor.org/stable/249477?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
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