Consumer Perceptions on Security, Privacy, and Trust on E-Portals

With the introduction of Internet and e-commerce many companies have been performing their business transactions through e-portals. Increasing technology has bought tremendous changes in online business transactions (buying and selling). This paper examines consumer perceptions of varying characteristics of e-portals, identifies various factors that influence consumer trust and privacy e-portals, and analyzes how various security and privacy factors affect consumer perceptions toward e-portals. A survey questionnaire consisting 21 questions was developed and mailed to 150 e-commerce (B2B and B2C) consumers in 3 emirates of UAE wherein 108 individuals responded. Questions were developed from a literature review of news, as well as security and privacy issues. Factor analysis that included principal component analysis and varimax rotation was performed on all multiple scale items that determined retention of items. Results indicated that most participants are concerned about security and privacy issues while they are using e-portals, but few participants stated that security is the main issue that creates a barrier for their online shopping. Most participants are not aware of internet privacy and security policies and are not interested in knowing technology used for security of e-portals.