The Viability of Removing Personal Information from Online White Page Directories: Are Consumer Perceptions Aligned with Reality?

Abstract

This research undertakes two related studies to investigate the difficulties faced and costs incurred by consumers in order to remove information about themselves from online white page directories. These directories contain an aggregate of personal information and create threats to consumers by allotting easy access. A survey study examines consumer awareness of these online directories and expectations of opt-out procedures. A field study tracks attempts at actual information removal for twenty volunteers to provide a real-world assessment of the effectiveness of current opt-out mechanisms. The results reveal a dramatic misalignment between consumer expectations and the reality of current opt-out practices. The results highlight the costs and difficulties associated with opt-outs and bring the validity of these mechanisms into question.Advancing database technologies have increased the opportunity for businesses to acquire, use, and disseminate customer information (Miceli, Ricotta, and Costabile 2007;Nehf 2007;Youn 2009). Although the permissive use of customer information has benefits for improving buyer-seller relationships (Stanaland, Lwin, and Leong 2009), these benefits must be weighed against privacy abuses associated with unauthorized access to personal information stored in proprietary and commercial databases (Kachhi and Link 2009;Milne, Bahl, and Rohm 2008;Norberg, Horne, and Horne 2009). At the extreme, the unauthorized and illegal use of personal information in the form of identity theft, phishing scams,

Defining and Conceptualizing Product Literacy*

“…In contrast, Labrecque et al (2012) reveals that one product literacy outcome—withdrawing from a market—is also susceptible to impediments, not from lack of reading skills, but from lack of availability and implementation of information. As online technology has continued to advance, consumers have become concerned about the unauthorized use of their personal information.…”

“…However, even though results of studies identified tobacco as a health hazard in the popular press in the 1950s, the change in aggregate consumer behavior has been a result of a combination of more specific product warning information, stiff retail price increases, severe restriction of availability and broad reductions in promotional activities. Clearly, simple provisions of warning information are not adequate to reduce consumption of some products (Capella, Taylor, and Kees 2012), encourage beneficial consumption of other products (Zank and Kemp 2012) or allow consumers to withdraw from some markets (Garrison et al 2012; Labrecque et al 2012).…”

“…Some consumer research in this area is arguably atheoretical, examining “what people (do not) know” about products they buy (Kopp and Kemp 2007; Perry 2008), while some research addresses reading ability in more general consumer cultural settings (Adkins and Ozanne 2005; Jae and Delvecchio 2004; Wallendorf 2001). Reading level alone (especially considering the difficulty of assessing true reading level) does not explain the complex human skills involved in becoming a product‐literate consumer, even in these narrower contexts (Garrison et al 2012; Labrecque et al 2012).…”

“…As online technology has continued to advance, consumers have become concerned about the unauthorized use of their personal information. Labrecque et al (2012) finds not only that consumers are not knowledgeable about the information that is disseminated about themselves through online white pages directories but also that consumers are unaware of the difficulties involved in opting out of these directories. This is especially significant because Labrecque et al (2012) provides evidence that the removal process is quite arduous.…”