Awareness On The Privacy Policies Of Surveys †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Awareness On The Privacy Policies Of Surveys. Answer: Discussions on research findings A research has been performed on the willingness of people to share their information in a survey. The researcher focused on collecting primary data through a survey. The sample size chosen is 62. The survey questionnaire contained all close ended questions, among which, four are demographic questions and ten are subjective questions. The demographic factors contain age range, nationality, gender and educational qualification of the 62 respondents. Subjective questions addressed various aspects of peoples awareness on the privacy policies of surveys and their willingness to provide personal information. The subjective answers were obtained on the likert scale values to make the calculation process and interpretation easier. Subjective factors Privacy concerns are major issues that affect the perceptions and decisions of people regarding divulging their personal information in a survey or for any service. From the research data analysis, it is seen that, among the 62 participants, majority either remained neutral or disagreed to willingly share their personal information due to privacy concerns. People fear about security risks about their personal details. Some information is less vulnerable but some information, especially those related to financial security, are extremely crucial. In the times of advanced technology, every data has the risk of being stolen or hacked. That can not only create big financial loss, but can also result in identity theft (Shin 2014). Hence, people are very cautious about sharing their personal information for any service. It is also seen that majority do not read the privacy policies of applications or services as they do not understand much of the policies (Schaub 2017). Privacy policies often cover multiple services of the companies and people find it difficult to comprehend. People are also aware that the applications and services that are used, collect the personal information. Many applications need personal information to allow access to people as they create virtual profiles of the users. It is also found that, people do not have any biasness regarding sharing less vulnerable information, such as, name, age, date of birth, address etc. as these possess less risk of being used for any wrong purpose. Hence, these data do not compromise the financial security of the person. At the same time, people do not find it feasible to share their personal information in the exchange for monetary rewards or free services (Ryan 2017). However, people are lured by personal benefits and thereby willingly share personal details if that makes the services better and customized for them. When people know the destination of the data, that makes them confident about the authenticity and security of the process and thus they share their personal information willingly. In many cases, especially regarding any financial matter, people are more cautious about security and privacy concerns and thus, they might not use a particular application or service about which they are not convinced (Singer 2015). Unnecessary transaction of personal information is also not preferred by majority as that can send data more than what is required to the companies, and hence, they prefer to turn off these features in the applications. Modern technology can collect many personal data such as, location, unique device ID and consumption patterns, which do not pose much security threat. Hence, people are neutral about collection of these data. Lastly, people expressed their disagreement on whether they are comfortable a bout their information being legally distributed to third party organizations. Problem arises when these organizations make marketing activities by either calling the customers or mailing them. This seems an intrusion into the privacy of customers (Ryan 2017). From the data, it can be said that, people are mostly neutral about the knowledge and awareness of the privacy policies, but they are very much conscious regarding sharing their personal information. References Ryan, T. (2017).Will consumers ever feel better about sharing their data?. [online] Retailwire.com. Available at: https://www.retailwire.com/discussion/will-consumers-ever-feel-better-about-sharing-their-data/ [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018]. Schaub, F. (2017).Nobody reads privacy policies here's how to fix that. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/nobody-reads-privacy-policies-heres-how-to-fix-that-81932 [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018]. Shin, L. (2014).'Someone Had Taken Over My Life': An Identity Theft Victim's Story. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/11/18/someone-had-taken-over-my-life-an-identity-theft-victims-story/#4c37769e25be [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018]. Singer, N. (2015).Sharing Data, but Not Happily. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/technology/consumers-conflicted-over-data-mining-policies-report-finds.html [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].