What improves citizens’ privacy perceptions toward RFID technology? A cross-country investigation using mixed method approach

Privacy is a serious concern to radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Worldwide, several companies scrapped RFID projects because of high resistance from consumers and their advocacy groups – which actually demand RFID-specific privacy policies. This concern is even more acute when RFID is used in public applications; because, in general case, citizens cannot refuse to provide data, and the data collected by a government agency would offer serious threats if are shared among third parties. Limited research has been performed in this specific issue; they all agree that perceived privacy increased RFID acceptance. But, what drives privacy perceptions are yet to be researched – this study closes this research gap. In order to conduct the current research, mixed method of research approach has been adopted. In the qualitative research stage, the authors conducted two focused-group discussion sessions and eight in-depth interviews in two different countries: Australia and Bangladesh; arguing that the status, and the perceptions and tolerance of the citizens on privacy are different in these two regions. The explored factors have been examined with empirical data obtained from these two countries. It is found that, there are distinct differences in perceptions in developed and developing countries. The detail findings offer practical suggestions to the agency managers so that they can ensure better privacy of the citizens. As a significant theoretical contribution, this study enhances existing literature identifying the antecedents of privacy, which play even different roles in different cultural backgrounds.