Privacy, security, risk, and trust concerns in e-commerce

Electronic commerce has increased dramatically in recent years, because of the revolution in information technology. The services provided by e-commerce companies could be affected by several factors such as privacy, security, trusts and perceived risks. In this paper, we propose a preliminary theoretical model that investigates the relationship between privacy, security concerns, and perceived risks, and how it would relate to customers' level of trust in e-commerce. A survey that involves 100 participants has been conducted and analyzed testing a number of hypotheses focused on studying the attributes of each factor, and its effect on the perceived risks associated with unexpected situations. The results of this research study show that a positive relationship exists between the perceived risks and some of the privacy attributes such as control and notice. A positive relationship also exists between the perceived risks and some of the security attributes such as confidentially and integrity. Further, the study demonstrates a positive relationship between perceived risks and customers' level of trust.