"Whether it’s moral is a whole other story": Consumer perspectives on privacy regulations and corporate data practices

Privacy laws govern the collection, use, and disclosure of per- sonal information by businesses. Through an online survey with 300 participants and a follow-up interview with 32 partic- ipants, we investigate Canadians’ awareness of their privacy rights and how businesses manage their personal information. Further, we explore how Canadians respond to hypotheti- cal privacy violations using ten scenarios adapted from real cases. Our participants are generally aware of having privacy rights but have insufficient knowledge and resources to ex- ercise those rights properly. Participants did not necessarily equate compliance with the law as sufficient for ethical con- duct. Through our analysis, we identified a “moral code” that consumers rely on to assess privacy violations based on the core moral values of trust, transparency, control, and access.