PRIVACY IN THE MARKETPLACE

This article reports on a series of in-depth interviews with UK consum ers about shopping, which served to investigate their views on the col lection and use of consumers' personal information by commercial organ izations. The interviews were used to analyze consumers' constructions of privacy infringement. No single type of information was found to c ount as personal in all situations. Rather, privacy infringement was c onstructed as a situated account. This ''situated privacy'' depended u pon the visibility of a mediating technology; the perceived legitimacy of information requests; the representation of intrusion or disruptio n of legitimate activity; perceived imbalances of power and control; a nd representations of the social context. By focusing on the daily act ivity of shopping instead of asking direct questions about privacy, we found that privacy concerns were rarely independently raised by inter viewees as an important feature in making decisions about purchasing. However, almost all of those interviewed drew on a repertoire of conce rns about use of personal information when prompted specifically to di scuss privacy issues in relation to shopping.