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This study investigated the attitudes and concerns of Saudi higher educational institution (HEI) academics about privacy and security in online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Online Questionnaire questionnaire was designed to explore Saudi HEI academic’s attitudes and concerns about privacy and security issues in online teaching. The questionnaire asked about attitudes and concerns held before the pandemic and since the pandemic. The questionnaire included four sections. At the beginning of the questionnaire, participants were asked what the phrase “online privacy and security” meant to them, to gain an initial understanding of what it meant to academics. A definition for what we intended for the survey was then provided: “that a person’s data, including their identity, is not accessible to anyone other than themselves and others whom they have authorised and that their computing devices work properly and are free from unauthorised interference” (based on my reading of a range of sources, e.g. Schatz et al., 2017; Steinberg, 2019; NCS; Windley, 2005). This was to ensure that participants did understand what I was asking about in subsequent sections.

This study investigated the attitudes and concerns of Saudi HEI academics about privacy and security in online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings provide several key insights: Key aspects of online privacy and security for Saudi HEI academics: Saudi HEI academic’s notion of online privacy and security is about the protection of personal data, preventing unauthorized access to data and ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of data. This underscores the significance of robust measures to safeguard sensitive information in online teaching, but also the need to make academics aware of the other aspects of online privacy and security. Potential to improve policies and training about online privacy and security in Saudi HEIs: Although many participants were aware of the online privacy and security policies of their HEI, only a small percentage had received training in this area. Thus, there is a need to improve the development and dissemination of policies and to provide academics with appropriate training in this area and encourage them to take available training. Use of videoconferencing and chat technologies and cultural sensitivities: The study highlighted moderate levels of concern among Saudi HEI academics regarding the use of videoconferencing and online chat technologies, and their concerns about cultural factors around the use of these technologies. This emphasizes the need for online teaching and the growing use of technologies in such teaching to respect cultural norms and preferences, highlighting the importance of fostering a culturally sensitive approach to technology deployment and use. Surprising low webcam use: An unexpected finding is the low use of webcams by both academics and students during online teaching sessions, prompting a need for a deeper understanding of the dynamics surrounding webcam engagement in such sessions. This calls for a reevaluation of the effectiveness of webcam use in the teaching process and underscores the importance of exploring methods for enhancing engagement and interaction in online teaching. In summary, this paper investigated the attitudes and concerns about privacy and security in the online teaching of Saudi HEI academics during the coronavirus pandemic. The study reveals areas where further research and policy development can enhance the online teaching experience. As the education landscape continues to evolve, institutions must remain proactive in addressing the concerns of their academics while fostering a culturally sensitive approach to technology deployment.

One limitation of this study is the relatively small qualitative data sample, despite the adequate size of the sample including 36 academics from various Saudi Arabian HEIs for quantitative analysis. It was necessary to make the most of the open-ended questions optional – participants did not have to answer about concerns if they did not want to, as we did not want to make the questionnaire too long and onerous to complete. Consequently, the number of academics responding to the open-ended questions was limited, emphasizing the need for additional data and alternative research methods to further these issues. The study was focused on investigating the concerns of HEI Saudi academics, recognizing that the attitudes and concerns of academics in other countries may differ. Furthermore, the research also includes an exploration of the changes in academic attitudes and concerns before and since the COVID-19 pandemic, which will be the subject of further data analysis.

This research delves into Saudi HEI academics' perceptions and concerns regarding privacy and security in online education during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Notably, it highlights the moderate priority placed on online privacy and security, the unexpectedly low usage of webcams and the potential for enhancing policies and training. The study emphasizes the necessity for comprehensive measures to protect sensitive data and the importance of tailored policies for educators. It also underscores the need for a more nuanced understanding of webcam usage dynamics, offering valuable insights for institutions aiming to improve online education and address educators' concerns amidst evolving educational landscapes.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) can bring a lot of benefits to supply chain management. However, privacy issues caused by RFID surface constantly and can impede widespread implementation of RFID. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model to explicate the construct of concern for information privacy (CFIP).

The authors review and synthesize the extant and pertinent literature on RFID and privacy issues. Starting with previous theorization of CFIP, its four constituent dimensions are examined – collection, unauthorized secondary use, improper access, and errors – within the context of RFID‐related privacy issues.

The authors situate CFIP within a nomological model, which advances that: awareness of the RFID technology itself, awareness of information security risks entailed by RFID use, and awareness of privacy protective measures are direct antecedent to CFIP; and CFIP directly influences a person's trust in the RFID technology.

Users' concern about privacy is a major impediment to wide‐spread use of RFID. From a societal perspective, the business advantages of RFID technologies should not be gained at the expense of citizens' privacy. This research helps to determine the proper management of privacy issues involved in RFID implementations.

Although there has been some technical discussion of privacy protection measures related to RFID, academic theorization of privacy issues at the human‐societal level is lacking in comparison. With this paper, the authors contribute to remedying this insufficiency.

Recently, the spread of malicious IT has been causing serious privacy threats to mobile device users, which hampers the efficient use of mobile devices for individual and business. To understand the privacy security assurance behavior of mobile device users, this study aims to develop a theoretical model based on technology threat avoidance theory (TTAT), to capture motivation factors in predicting mobile device user’s voluntary adoption of security defensive software.

A survey is conducted to validate the proposed research model. A total of 284 valid survey data are collected and partial least square (PLS)-based structural equation modeling is used to test the model.

Results highlight that both privacy concern and coping appraisal have a significant impact on the intention to adopt the security defensive software. Meanwhile, privacy security awareness is a crucial determinant to stimulate mobile device user’s threat and coping appraisal processes in the voluntary context. The results indicate that emotional-based coping appraisal of anticipated regret is also imperative to arouse personal intention to adopt the security tool.

This result should be of interest to practitioners. Information security awareness training and education programs should be developed in a variety of forms to intensify personal security knowledge and skills. Besides, emotion-based warnings can be designed to arouse users’ protection behavior.

This paper embeds TTAT theory within the mobile security context. The authors extent TTAT by taking anticipated regret into consideration to capture emotional-based coping appraisal, and information security awareness is employed as the antecedent factor. The extent offers a useful starting point for the further empirical study of emotion elements in the information security context.

In recent years, the ongoing development and rapid popularization of mobile devices, not only has brought new forms of lifestyle but also has boomed a wide array of service contents, allowing users to engage in entertainment, study and other daily activities, in addition to business transactions. To explore the factors that affect users' continued use of mobile app software, this paper aims to take into account the utilitarian value and privacy, as well as security factors and intends to propose an integrated research model based on the information systems success (ISS) model.

The data for this study were collected via an online survey questionnaire. A total of 190 valid responses were used to examine the hypotheses in the research model. The casual model was assessed using partial least squares techniques.

The results indicated that the three quality factors (information quality, system quality and service quality) in the ISS model significantly affected satisfaction and utilitarian value. Private and security have significant negative association with utilitarian value. The results also showed that private and security did not significantly affect satisfaction. The findings also provide some directions for further research.

The results show that user's continued use of mobile app software depends upon the perceived utilitarian value and satisfaction. The quality characteristics are the three critical factors that would affect the perceived utilitarian value and satisfaction. Compared to information quality and service quality, system quality has a higher degree of positive impact, which indicates that users are more concerned about the immediate download ability and ease-of-use provided by the system. Furthermore, the research also finds that privacy and security concerns have a negative influence on the utilitarian value, showing that in the context of task-oriented IS, the perceived risk of privacy and security during the process of using mobile app software services, will negatively affect users’ perception of utilitarian value. The insights provided by this study can help mobile app developers optimize design and marketing strategies.

This study provides a better understanding of how the factors in the theories influence the continuance usage intention of life style mobile applications.

Privacy concerns and data security are changing the risks for businesses and organisations. This indicates that the accountability of all governance participants changes. This paper aims to investigate the role of external auditors within data protection practices and how their role is evolving due to the current digital ecosystem.

By surveying the literature, the authors embrace a practice-oriented perspective to explain how data protection practices emerge, exist and occur and examine the auditors’ position within data protection.

Auditors need to align their tasks to the purpose of data protection practices. Accordingly, in accessing and using data, auditors are required to engage moral judgements and follow ethical principles that go beyond their legal responsibility. Simultaneously, their accountability extends to data protection ends for instilling confidence that security risks are properly managed. Due to the changing technological conditions under, which auditors operate, the traditional auditors’ task of hearing and verifying extend to new phenomena that create risks for businesses. Thus, within data protection practices, auditors have the accountability to keep interested parties informed about data security and privacy risks, continue to transmit signals to users and instill confidence in businesses.

The normative level of the study is a research limitation, which calls for future empirical research on how Big Data and data protection is reshaping accounting and auditing practices.

This paper provides auditing standard setters and practitioners with insights into the redefinitions of auditing practices in the era of Big Data.

Recent privacy concerns at Facebook have sent warning signals across the world about the risks posed by in Big Data systems in terms of privacy, to those charged with governance of organisations. Auditors need to understand these privacy issues to better serve their clients.

This paper contributes to triggering discussions and future research on data protection and privacy in accounting and auditing research, which is an emerging, yet unresearched topic.

Although cloud storage services can bring users valuable convenience, they can be technically complex and intrinsically insecure. Therefore, this research explores the concerns of academic users regarding cloud security and technical issues and how such problems may influence their continuous use in daily life.

This qualitative study used a semi-structured interview approach comprising six main open-ended questions to explore the information security and technical issues for the continuous use of cloud storage services by 20 undergraduate students in Hong Kong.

The analysis revealed cloud storage service users' major security and technical concerns, particularly synchronization and backup issues, were the most significant technical barrier to the continuing personal use of cloud storage services.

Existing literature has focused on how cloud computing services could bring benefits and security and privacy-related risks to organizations rather than security and technical issues of personal use, especially in the Asian academic context.

Introduction: As Internet usage increases, so does widespread concern about surveillance and privacy. While most of the research primarily focuses on a particular digital setting, these problems cut beyond national boundaries and impact economies everywhere.

Purpose: This study critically analyses the Data Protection Bill 2019’s effectiveness within the context of surveillance and privacy in India’s digital economy. Investigating critical provisions of the bill, comparing it to international privacy laws and standards, and identifying potential gaps and weaknesses, this study provides insights into the bill’s ability to protect personal data and limit surveillance practices.

Methodology: The chapter is based on secondary sources of data, including academic articles, government reports, and news articles on the topics of surveillance, privacy, and the Data Protection Bill 2019 in India, involving content and critical discourse analyses.

Findings: The Data Protection Bill 2019 evaluation reveals a set of provisions with the overarching intent to safeguard citizens’ privacy worldwide and curtail undue surveillance practices exercised by both governmental bodies and private enterprises. Intricately delineates the entitlements of individuals concerning their data, encompassing vital aspects such as the right to access, rectify, and erase their data, the bill mandates stringent adherence to the principle of explicit consent when collecting and processing personal data.

Nevertheless, a comprehensive analysis also reveals several gaps and constraints inherent in the bill’s framework. One such area is the inclusion of exemptions for governmental entities, an aspect that raises international concerns regarding potential disparities in data protection practices.

The purpose of this paper is to bring a new scientific theory into practice in the hotel industry.

In‐depth open‐ended interviews were used with eight hospitality practitioners, consumers, and academic researchers.

The article lays out current practices of security and privacy measurements in the hospitality industry and points out the related limitations. More importantly, it provides insights to hotel operators on possible future applications of a new scientific invention and how it could help alleviate the limitations found in the existing security and privacy measures.

The paper raises the awareness of a new scientific breakthrough that sheds new lights to security and privacy strategies in hotel operations. Hotels, which are able to react quickly to gain the first‐mover‐advantage in leading the industry on the application of such technology, will certainly gain tremendous publicity, and more importantly will be the first to create a new level of confidence in the market on security and privacy strategies implemented in their daily hotel operations.

This paper communicates a recent scientific development and its possible applications in the hotel industry. In this way, it bridges the gap between a scientific invention and its real‐world application. It is expected to provide insights for hoteliers who are interested in technology applications.

This study aims to examine the effect of dataveillance on resistance towards online payment. Using a moderated-mediation framework, the study also investigates the mediating effects of perceived privacy and security concerns and how these mediating effects are moderated by corporate credibility, consumer scepticism and consumer empowerment.

A scenario-based experimental design was performed to examine the proposed hypotheses. Analysis of covariance and PROCESS macro were used to examine the hypotheses by analysing 312 collected responses.

The results indicated the dataveillance positively affects consumer resistance towards online payment. The results also suggested that corporate credibility and consumer scepticism significantly moderates the association between dataveillance and resistance towards online payment.

The findings of this study will help online retailers to reduce consumers’ perceived privacy and security concerns, thereby reducing consumers’ resistance towards online payment.

Theoretically, the study contributes to privacy, consumer behaviour, online payment and cognitive-motivational-relational theory literature.

Online privacy pertains to an individual’s capacity to regulate and oversee the gathering and distribution of online information. Conversely, online privacy concern (OPC) pertains to the protection of personal information, along with the worries or convictions concerning potential risks and unfavorable outcomes associated with its collection, utilization and distribution. With a holistic approach to these relationships, this study aims to model the relationships between digital literacy (DL), digital data security awareness (DDSA) and OPC and how these relationships vary by gender.

The participants of this study are 2,835 university students. Data collection tools in the study consist of personal information form and three different scales. Partial least squares (PLS), structural equation modeling (SEM) and multi-group analysis (MGA) were used to test the framework determined in the context of the research purpose and to validate the proposed hypotheses.

DL has a direct and positive effect on digital data security awareness (DDSA), and DDSA has a positive effect on OPC. According to the MGA results, the hypothesis put forward in both male and female sub-samples was supported. The effect of DDSA on OPC is higher for males.

This study highlights the positive role of DL and perception of data security on OPC. In addition, MGA findings by gender reveal some differences between men and women.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2023-0122