Many people have growing concerns about privacy issues, especially the treatment of personal information. Other researchers have demonstrated that consumers do not effectively use privacy policies while shopping online. Current research tends to focus on the contents of Online Privacy Policy (OPP). Often the OPP contains items to meet vendor interests rather than consumer concerns, such as how well the OPP reduces privacy risk. Moreover, various approaches interpret the contents of the OPP rather than the OPP effects on reducing privacy risk. These approaches have not made a substantial impact on consumer selection of a vendor. The research distinguished two types of Privacy Protection Information (PPI): the level of Vendor Privacy Risk (V) added by vendor practices allowed by the OPP and the level of Online Privacy Risk (O) not reduced by the OPP. A survey presented for each vendor the two types of PPI together with a product price. The results indicate that the respondents readily used PPI and preferred to have no Online Privacy Risk rather than no Vendor Privacy Risk. Of the six demographics attributes of the respondent, only the frequency of online shopping and the concern for privacy significantly increased the use of PPI. Recommendations were made for future research.

Information systems researchers typically use self-report measures, such as questionnaires to study consumers’ online risk perception. The self-report approach captures the conscious perception of online risk but not the unconscious perception that precedes and dominates human being’s decision-making. A theoretical model in which implicit risk perception precedes explicit risk evaluation is proposed. The research model proposes that implicit risk affects both explicit risk and the attitude towards online purchase. In a direct path, the implicit risk affects attitude towards purchase. In an indirect path, the implicit risk affects explicit risk, which in turn affects attitude towards purchase. The stimulus used was a questionable web site offering pre-paid credit card services. Data was collected from 150 undergraduate students enrolled in a university. Implicit risk was measured using methods developed in social psychology, namely, single category-implicit association test. Explicit risk and attitude towards purchase were measured using a well-known instrument in the e-commerce risk literature. Preliminary, unconditioned analysis suggested that (a) implicit risk does not affect explicit risk, (b) explicit risk does not affect attitude to purchase, and (c) implicit risk does not affect attitude towards purchase.