Privacy Statements as a Means of Uncertainty Reduction in WWW Interactions - End User Computing Challenges and Technologies: Emerging Tools and Applications - page 203

limitations of Findings reFerenCes

As pointed out, the sample is not representative
of all Internet companies. Thus, the main find-
ings are not the frequencies the content analysis
has yielded but the fact that privacy policies are
incomplete and, thus, unlikely to fulfill their pur-
pose of uncertainty reduction. A second limitation
is the nature of content analysis, which “neglects
the rare and the absent” (Bauer, 2000, p. 148).
Although in this study, the collective-level data
provided by the content analysis are supplemented
by textual data, both analyses focus on frequen-
cies and are biased toward the presence. Only
qualitative research such as discourse analysis
could remedy this situation.

Andrade, E. B., Kaltechva, V., & Weitz, B. (2002).
Self-disclosure on the Web: The impact of privacy
policy, reward, and company reputation. Advances
in Consumer Research , 29, 350-353.

Bauer, M. W. (2000). Classical content analysis:
A review. In M.W. Bauer, & G. Gaskel (Eds.),
Qualitative researching with text, image and
sound (pp. 131-151). London: Sage.

Baumer, D. L., Poindexter, J. C., & Earp, J. B.
(2004). Meaningful and meaningless choices
in cyberspace. Journal of Internet Law, 7 (11),
3-11.

BBBOnline. (2004). Retrieved from http://www.
bbbonline.org/privacy/

avenues for Future research

Belanger, F., Hiller, J.S., & Smith, W. J. (2002).
Trustworthiness in electronic commerce: The
role of privacy, security, and site attributes. The
Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 11 (3/4),
245-270.

Further research is needed to understand the capa-
bilities language has for disguising, deemphasiz-
ing, and obscuring privacy practices. As long as
P3P policies do not catch on, language will play
a crucial role in easing users' privacy concerns
and building trust. Therefore, qualitative research
is needed to examine privacy policies in light of
their communicative action. In addition, research
is needed to gain insight into how companies
design privacy policies, whom they include in the
design process, and what determines which issues
they address in their privacy policies. Ultimately,
future research also should look at how privacy
policies differ across countries or continents in
terms of scope and depth and in how far national
legislation has a bearing on commercial privacy
policies.

Benassi, P. (1999). TRUSTe: An online privacy
seal program. Communications of the ACM,
42 (2), 56-59.

Berger, C. R. (1979). Beyond initial interactions:
Uncertainty, understanding and the development
of interpersonal relationships. In H. Giles, & R.
Sinclair (Eds.), Language and social psychology
(pp. 122-144). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Berger, C. R., & Bradac, J. J. (1982). Language and
social knowledge: Uncertainty in interpersonal
relations . London: Arnold.

Berger, C. R., & Calabrese, R. J. (1975). Some
explorations in initial interaction and beyond:
Toward a developmental theory of interpersonal
communication. Human Communication Theory,
1 , 99-112.

aCknowledgment

The author wishes to thank three anonymous
reviewers and one associate editor for their
thoughtful reviews of earlier versions of this
manuscript.