Privacy policies and practices: an investigation of secondary use of information within South African retail banking institutions

[摘要] This paper addresses concerns surrounding information privacy and the secondary use ofinformation in South African corporations. This study also attempts to assess the level ofconcern that management and information technology practitioners if! South African retailbanks have about privacy issues.The research suggests that privacy is a huge concern internationally and may affect SouthAfrican corporations if they do not follow certain policies and practices. Eleven in-personstructured interviews were conducted at four banks.The research proposes a set of guidelines by which South African management and ITpractitioners, who are involved with the identification and solution of some of the problemsthat may be presented by possible privacy legislation, will be able to assess their policies andpractices against international practices and policies. The results inform IS managers andexecutives about appropriate business policies they can implement voluntarily to addresspublic concerns about specific information practices that may be considered a threat toprivacy.The findings suggest that the executives are deliberately avoiding confronting the issue ofinformation privacy for as long as possible. The executives are adopting a wait-and-seeattitude and will react 011 whatever legislation requires them to do. At the time of thereport senior executives at banks were not accepting responsibility for information privacypolicies and practices and were leaving this responsibility; to the middle level managers who implement their own practices based on their own needs.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand