week 3

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY

Article Reflection Paper 3

Submitted to Dr. Kenneth Nehrbass,

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of

GLST 650 – D04

Intercultural Communication and Engagement

by

Mawufemor Biekro

April 14, 2018

Summary

The article, the relationship between culture and information privacy policy, talks about how the legislation of information privacy is influenced by culture. It talks about how corporations and other institutions are increasingly gathering people’s personal and private information so that they can have a competitive advantage and increase profitability. It establishes the fact that there are some cultural values that cause different countries to legislate differently on aspects of information privacy. Power distance is one of the cultural values that affect information privacy policies. Cultures with high power distance expect to have less information privacy, so they lobby to get more information privacy. Another cultural value that affects information privacy policy is human orientation. In cultures where this exists, individuals are rewarded for being fair, generous, and caring for one another. Information privacy is very high in cultures that practice human orientation because there are usually “watch dogs” or whistle blowers who closely monitor organizations that handle people’s private information. Societies that have individualism or collectivism as their cultural value determines how legislation is made about information privacy. Western countries such as the United States practice individualism and information privacy is very high. Eastern countries such as China practice collectivism, so information privacy is low. Other cultural values that affect information privacy are future orientation, performance orientation, uncertainty avoidance, other legislative elements, and many others.

Reflection and Analysis

According to Cockcroft and Rekker, information privacy is defined as “the interest an individual has in controlling or at least significantly influencing, the handling of data about themselves. Increase in technology has led to organizations having the ability to store and keep huge amounts of personal information belonging to their customers. For instance, software such as a Customer relationship management (CRM) has given companies to store and retrieve personal information such as names, addresses, date of birth, social security numbers, credit card information and other personal data.

The article explains that power distance is the extent to which a community accepts and endorses authority, power differences, and status privileges. Cultures that have high power distance usually have leaders and people in authority who are corrupt. This is particularly predominant in African and South American cultures. Information in such societies is usually handled by those in authority, so the people are likely to push for legislation that favors information privacy. Cockcroft and Rekker write, “The first hypothesizing a positive relationship based on trust being lower in high PD societies leading to first, a tendency seek protection from a higher power, and second, a striving to reduce this distance through legislation”.

Human orientation is a cultural value that affects information privacy policies. Cockcroft and Rekker define human orientation as, “the degree to which an organization or society encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, friendly, generous, caring, and kind to others. Members of society are responsible for promoting the well-being of others”. People in these cultures are encouraged to be sensitive to all forms of discrimination, especially racial discrimination. The United States of America is a good example. In the US, fundamental human right laws, including the right to privacy are highly enforced. This is the reason why there are many laws to protect information privacy. Recently in the new, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg went to address the United States Congress about how Facebook uses people’s personal data. Facebook was accused of misusing people’s information for financial gains and so he was asked to testify in Congress so that they can pass laws that will help protect personal data of American citizens. The culture of every society will always have an influence on information privacy policies, and these policies will continue to vary from one culture to the other.

Bibliography

Cockcroft, Sophie, and Saphira Rekker. "The Relationship between Culture and Information

Privacy Policy." Electronic Markets 26, no. 1 (2015): 55-72. doi:10.1007/s12525-015-0195-9.

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