Consumer intentions to falsify personal information online: unethical or justifiable?

ABSTRACT

Companies routinely analyse the online activities of consumers to understand shopping habits and buying patterns. As the amount of personal information available online has grown, so has the potential for its misuse. When consumers believe that their personal information is being used for an unstated purpose, they may consider the firm to be acting unethically. They may then falsify their personal information online as a reaction to apparent ethical violations by companies or as an opportunistic unethical act of their own. The purpose of the present research is to propose a framework that could be used to understand consumer intentions to falsify personal information online. The research is important from both a theoretical and business perspective. From a theoretical standpoint, they add to the literature on the dark side of marketing by examining ethically questionable behaviour by consumers. The research is relevant for firms because when consumers falsify personal information their ability to target consumers with personalised offers is diminished. The research is also relevant for policymakers as they evaluate existing regulatory safeguards intended to protect consumer information online.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer misbehaviour
• ethically questionable behaviour
• falsification of information
• e-commerce
• online information disclosure
• privacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Girish Punj

Girish Punj is a Professor of Marketing at the School of Business, University of Connecticut. He received his M. S. and Ph.D. in Marketing from Carnegie-Mellon University. His current areas of research include e-commerce, digital marketing, consumer decision making in web-based environments, and online product reviews. He has published 65+ research papers in various marketing journals and national conference proceedings including the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Science, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, International Journal for Research in Marketing, Journal of Advertising, Marketing Letters and Journal of Interactive Marketing.