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Security Concerns Cloud Holiday Shopping

The big increase in online sales expected this holiday shopping season comes amid what appears to be unprecedented consumer concerns over data privacy, online fraud and identity theft.

By Paul Kerstein

credit cards and between 7 million and 10 million pieces of personally identifiable information associated with those cards, such as last names and addresses, he said.

Most of the time, the merchants involved appeared unwilling to take responsibility for their security lapses, he said. "When you show them the data, they only fess up to what is put in front of them," Clements said.

But Cathy Hotka, senior vice president of technology and business development at the Retail Industry Leaders Association in Washington, said that much of the concerns about online security is overblown.

"I don’t believe for a second that anybody’s enthusiasm has been dampened" by online security concerns, Hotka said. "The track record of online security is great. We’ve demonstrated safe e-commerce for years, and consumers love it. If anything, there’s concern about phishing and the effect that it can have on brands."

The results from the Truste survey appear to reinforce the findings of other recent research that reveals similar consumer concerns.

In a nationwide survey of 1,009 consumers conducted by Forrester Custom Consumer Research for the Business Software Alliance, one in four consumers said they would not shop online because of Internet security concerns. Another survey of 2,008 consumers released on Nov. 22 by Sun Microsystems Inc. showed that 83 percent of the respondents think they’re most susceptible to identity theft during the holiday season.

By Jaikumar Vijayan - Computerworld (US online)

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