Abstract

The use of different forms of marketing Communications on the Internet is definitely on the rise. During those interactive communication processes, personal data are collected not only in an explicit manner (i.e. using electronic forms), but in an implicit manner as well (i.e. using cookies, clickstream analysis, spyware). The collection and use of data of internet users for marketing purposes raises questions concerning the protection of the online consumers' privacy. To protect the informational privacy (i.e. dataprotection) and the relational privacy (i.e. in this domain the right not to be contacted for marketing purposes) legislative initiatives have been taken in the European Union. In an analysis of Belgian commercial websites, we control the application of the Belgian privacy law in the explicit and one implicit form of dataprocessing. One of the conclusions is that a majority of websites do not collect consumers’ data respecting several privacy rights.

How to Cite:

Walrave, M., (2002) “Privacy op het internet: reëel of virtueel?: een onderzoek naar de bescherming van de persoonlijke levenssfeer in Belgische commerciële websites”, Tijdschrift voor Sociologie 23(3-4). doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/sociologos.86567