Information technology and the social construction of information privacy

This paper examines how the conflict between information technology and information privacy is socially constructed and enacted through judicial decisions, legislative mandates, and private sector initiatives such as WebTrust^SM/TM and other privacy seal programs. We first identify some reasons individuals may have for wanting to control their personal information, how such privacy is eroded by advances in information technology, and the currently limited role of informed consent in managing the conflict between privacy and technology. We then argue that the existing judicial, legislative, and private sector initiatives in North America and Europe do not adequately achieve the goals of informed consent and other fair information practices. We further argue that privacy attestation will likely play a limited privacy protection role because it is only one of several social practices that manage the tensions between information technology and information privacy. Finally, we discuss some policy implications of information technology and the erosion of society's expectations about privacy, some difficult tradeoffs between private and public interests, and whether interested parties (including accountants in public practice) can become effective agents of social change in the information privacy arena.     

Online advertising and privacy

An online platform auctions an advertising slot. Several advertisers compete in the auction, and consumers differ in their preferences. Prior to the auction, the platform decides whether to allow advertisers to access information about consumers (disclosure) or not (privacy). Disclosure improves the match between advertisers and consumers but increases product prices, even without price‐discrimination. We provide conditions under which disclosure or privacy is privately and/or socially optimal. When advertisers compete on the downstream market, disclosure can lead to an increase or a decrease in product prices depending on the nature of the information.     

央行数字货币体系构建对金融系统的影响

本文基于货币演化逻辑以及公共选择理论的视角,论证了央行数字货币产生的必要性;从价值维度、技术维度、运营维度、应用维度的视角,论证了央行数字货币体系构建的充分性.央行数字货币体系构建过程中可能面临三个主要选择:计不计息、匿不匿名、跨不跨境.这三个选择对金融系统的影响体现为:现金、银行存款与央行数字货币的"三角平衡"问题,...     

Corporate Disclosure as a Tacit Coordination Mechanism: Evidence from Cartel Enforcement Regulations

We empirically study how collusion in product markets affects firms' financial disclosure strategies. We find that after a rise in cartel enforcement, U.S. firms start sharing more detailed information in their financial disclosure about their customers, contracts, and products. This new information potentially benefits peers by helping to tacitly coordinate actions in product markets. Indeed, changes in disclosure are associated with higher future profitability. Our results highlight the potential conflict between securities and antitrust regulations.     

Genetic engineering,genetic modification,or agricultural biotechnology: does the term matter?

The risk perception and communication literature appears to use terms such as genetic engineering (GE), genetic modification (GM), and agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) almost interchangeably. The present research therefore seeks to compare the effect of these three terms on consumers’ cognitive, affective and behavioral component of attitude. The variables under investigation are consumers’ perceptions of risk, benefits, personal control over technology, support and promotion of the development of technology, dread, labeling, and purchase intentions. The study draws on the equivalency framing literature in conducting two question wording experiments whereby participants are randomly assigned to receive a version that uses just one of the three different terms. The first experiment found that the framing effect of food technology as either GE or GM may be contingent on source of information. When the technology was framed as GE and the information source was a consumer organization, respondents reported higher perceived personal control over the technology compared to when the information source was government, newspaper, or no source. Therefore, framing food as GE may be a somewhat beneficial for those who seek to promote the technology while framing the technology as GM might help those who oppose the technology. The second experiment found that using the terms agbiotech and GE were associated with higher perceived benefits, positive feelings, and purchase intention compared to GM. The ‘agbiotech’ term garnered the most relative support for the technology. Implications are discussed.     

The privacy implications of insurers' information practices

Insurers and their support organizations are among the largest collectors and users of personally identifiable information in the United States, yet little attention has been focused historically on the implications of insurers' information practices to individuals' privacy. Moreover, these practices are virtually opaque from the subject individual's point of view--in other words, individuals do not realize the full implications to their privacy when they enter into relationships with insurers. Thus, individuals may be at a disadvantage from a privacy protection standpoint in dealing with insurers. This paper analyzes insurers' information practices from a privacy protection perspective and suggests several areas that need improvement.     

注册制改革会产生溢出效应吗?——基于企业投资行为的视角北大核心

提高资本市场资源配置效率是注册制推行的重要目标之一,本文以此为出发点,构建了多期倍分法(DID)模型,探究了科创板(试点注册制)公司信息披露对同行业公司的溢出效应。研究发现,科创板公司信息披露会促使同行业公司提高研发投入,且该效应随着信息披露内容的丰富、精确度的增加而有所提高。机制分析表明,该溢出效应源自信息不确定性的降低和竞争压力的产生。同时,创板信息披露提高了同行业公司管理层对创新的认知程度以及增加了媒体关注度,进而促进公司研发投入。进一步研究发现,同行业公司研发投入受到正向溢出效应影响的同时,固定资产投入有所降低,投资结构的改变最终导致投资效率提升,显著抑制了过度投资。本文为强制性信息披露的溢出效应研究提供了因果证据,也为注册制改革政策效果的全面评估提供了支持。     

Medical records: information gathering and confidentiality

This article focuses on protecting the confidentiality and privacy of workplace medical records. All employers should be concerned about the potential legal liability for unauthorized and improper disclosure of confidential employee medical data. Employers should adapt and follow a corporate policy governing the use and maintenance of confidential employee hiring, benefits, personnel and medical information. If there is any question concerning the confidentiality of records, employers should consult with legal counsel or other outside advisers.     

The Evolving Disclosure Landscape: How Changes in Technology,the Media,and Capital Markets Are Affecting Disclosure

Recent changes in technology and the media are causing significant changes in how capital markets assimilate and respond to information. We identify important themes in the disclosure literature and use this as a framework to discuss the conference papers that appear in this volume. These papers examine how managers’ disclosure practices are being affected by changes in technology, the media, and capital markets. While this work makes important progress, we discuss how continuing technological change and the emergence of new forms of media offer further opportunities for research on the role of disclosure in capital markets.     

Privacy in E-Commerce: Development of Reporting Standards, Disclosure, and Assurance Services in an Unregulated Market

Government regulation of financial reporting by publicly listed firms, coupled with a punitive regime for violation of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), has been in place in the United States for seven decades. Whether this regime is effective or useful is an open question, especially in the absence of data on the behavior of unregulated economies. Privacy disclosure in e‐commerce is essentially an unregulated environment with some parallels to financial disclosure. A study of privacy standards, disclosures practices, and demand for audits can help accountants and security regulators project the consequences of a competitive regime sans regulation for accounting standards, disclosure and audit practices. In this article we set up a framework for such a study, gather data from the field, and analyze privacy standards, privacy disclosure practices, and the effectiveness of opt‐out practices of 100 high‐traffic e‐commerce Web sites. We observe four diverse sets of privacy standards (TRUSTe, BBB Online, WebTrust, and PWC Privacy) competing in this market, attracting clienteles of their own as reflected in privacy policies and the disclosure of such policies. With a few exceptions, actual disclosure and opt‐out practices correspond reasonably well to stated policies in e‐commerce. There is little evidence that the prevailing competitive regime induces a race to the bottom with respect to privacy standards and disclosures. We explore the implications of these results for the consequences of a competitive regime for regulation of financial reporting.     

Governance and monetary policy impacts on public acceptance of CBDC adoption

Launching the central bank digital currency (CBDC) is increasingly recognized as a key priority by several governments. Unknown are, however, the primary factors of public support for the initiative and CBDC acceptance choices. Moreover, despite the fact that CBDC's success requires substantial public support, there is less empirical data of how the public perceives and speaks about it. This research seeks to fill in these gaps using Facebook data from May 2012 to April 2022 using deep learning algorithms for text mining. This research demonstrates that government performance, inflation rate, economic inequality, and technological literacy have a significant influence on the public's perception of CBDC. The government's support of CBDC is determined by public sentiment, the degree of adoption of decentralized finance (Defi), and monetary policy settings. The degree of wealth inequality and technological literacy are two other demographic elements that influence the government's adoption of CBDC.     

论纳税人税务信息保护的法理路径

纳税人税务信息与个人信息(个人隐私)概念在逻辑上属于交叉关系,它们之间的共性意味着保护个人隐私或个人信息的法学理论与法律制度,可以直接运用于保护自然纳税人的税务信息;但是,它们之间的差异决定了保护个人隐私、个人信息的法律制度并不能全部、充分地保护纳税人的税务信息,必须建立专门的保护纳税人税务信息的法律制度。为此,可借鉴保护个人信息的做法,以隐私权、一般人格权等理论为基础.建立纳税人税务信息权理论作为我国保护纳税人税务信息的法理路径。     

个人信息权利的法律性质

信息技术的广泛应用使个人信息的保护受到重视。赋予个人信息法定权利是个人信息保护的基础和前提。从个人信息权利的本质属性来看,个人信息权利不是财产权,而是人格权。但是,个人信息权利应与传统的具体人格权相区别,个人信息权利不应被隐私权所替代,也与其他具体人格权保护的客体不同,个人信息权利应当是一项独立的具体人格权,只有如此,网络空间的个人信息才能够得到完整、全面的保护。     

Disclosure and the cost of capital: A discussion

In this discussion I comment on the contribution of two papers toward our understanding of how disclosure affects the cost of capital. Specifically, in the context of these papers, I comment on whether disclosure ameliorates or exacerbates the cost of capital that arises from the existence of information asymmetries in capital markets. This is a notion that should be of fundamental interest in that it provides an economic basis for evaluating the costs and benefits of accounting information.     

Directional predictability from central bank digital currency to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins

This paper investigates the interaction and the directional predictability between the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and the major cryptocurrencies and stablecoins during the period between 17 May, 2019–31 December, 2021. To this aim, we employ the "Cross-Quantilogram” model, to examine how and whether the traditional digital currencies react to the CBDC uncertainty and attention shocks. Our findings suggest that CBDC uncertainty index is negatively related to cryptocurrency and stablecoin returns. Furthermore, the CBDC attention index is negatively associated with Bitcoin, Ethereum, XPR and Terra USD, however, it is positively related to Tether, Binance, USD Coin and Dai. Our results are useful for regulators, investors and policy makers, to understand and assess the potential effect of CBDC adoption news on the volatility of the stablecoins and traditional cryptos.     

Central bank digital currency: A systematic literature review using text mining approach

Central bank digital currency (CBDC) is seen as a possible next step in the evolution of money, offering a more stable unit of account, a more efficient medium of exchange, and a safer way to store value. However, since it began to get significant attention from academics and practitioners a few years ago, many concerns about how a central bank may build an efficient CBDC and how it would impact a country's current financial system still remain unanswered satisfactorily. Based on the combination of text mining and systematic review methods, this work presents a thorough literature assessment of 191 academic papers on CBDC in order to identify major research issues and knowledge gaps that may be addressed in the future. We find seven primary research themes linked to CBDC including (1) Central bank, (2) CBDC and other digital currency, (3) CBDC and money markets, (4) CBDC and monetary policy, (5) CBDC design and technologies, (6) CBDC and payment system, and (7) CBDC and financial stability and regulatory. The finding helps provide both overall and in-depth views of the current state of research in digital fiat currency topics, as well as drawing some important implications and suggestions on directions for the future research.     

The effects of disclosing critical audit matters and auditor tenure on nonprofessional investors’ judgments

In an effort to provide more meaningful information to financial statement users, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) recently adopted sweeping changes to the audit report, requiring the audit firm to disclose whether or not it identified a critical audit matter (CAM) and its tenure with the client. To our knowledge, ours is the first study to explore how nonprofessional investors’ judgments are influenced by (1) the relative effects of a CAM disclosure versus a disclosure that the auditor did not identify a CAM, and (2) the disclosure of the audit firm’s tenure. We find that, relative to disclosing that no CAMs were identified, disclosing a CAM reduces investment intentions. We do not find a significant effect of tenure disclosure on investment intentions, despite evidence that participants attended to and understood the tenure manipulation. Concerning investors’ cognitive processes, we find that perceptions of both risk of material misstatement and management disclosure credibility mediate the effect of CAM disclosure on investment intentions, while perceived audit quality suppresses this effect. Our contributions include furthering the understanding of cognitive mechanisms through which CAM disclosure influences investment intentions, identifying a relatively unique setting in which perceptions of management disclosure credibility and audit quality move in opposite directions, and providing evidence that auditor tenure disclosure does not appear to affect investment intentions. Our findings should be of interest to regulators, auditors, issuers, and investors.     

我国区域性征信管理体系建设中存在的问题及建议

西方发达国家大部分都建立了成熟的社会信用征信管理体系.目前,我国的征信管理系统建设主要是十多个省、市、地区在各自行政区域范围内建立的区域性征信管理系统.作者在考察我国多个地区的征信管理系统建设的基础上,总结了尚存在由政府包揽、管理规章过于粗略、信用信息被垄断、把政府信用网站的数据等同于征信服务公司的数据、征信公司普遍亏损以及当成政绩工程建设等问题,并分析了造成这些问题的原因;最后,在借鉴发达国家相关经验的基础上,对建立征信管理体系的模式,信息公开和保护个人隐私及企业秘密,政府、征信公司和企业三方的关系等问题提出了建议.     

How can firms repair their reputations when they discover information technology control material weaknesses?

We examine the effects of information technology material weaknesses on a firm’s reputation by examining how management’s actions before and after disclosure influence investors’ trust in management and perceptions of investment risk. Specifically, we look at the influence of: 1) management taking responsibility for an information technology material weakness, and 2) replacing the CFO with someone with technology expertise. We find that management taking responsibility for a material weakness does not lead to increased trust in management before or after remediation. However, investors perceive more favorable market reactions to remediation when management had previously taken responsibility for the control weakness. Further, we find that replacing the CFO with someone who has technology expertise results in increases in investor trust and improvements in perceptions of investment risk after control weakness remediation. This suggests the importance of sending clear signals to investors that the company is hiring managers with appropriate technology expertise.     

The determinants of Internet financial reporting

Responding to the widespread adoption of the Internet and the rapidly growing demands for information from stakeholders, corporations around the world are using the Internet for business and financial disclosures. Internet reporting has the benefits of low cost, wider reach, frequency and speed. Despite these benefits Internet reporting varies across companies and across countries. We study Internet financial reporting (IFR), in particular the presentation and content of IFR, of 660 large companies in 22 countries to identify the firm, and environmental determinants of IFR. The study revealed that firm size, listing on US stock exchanges and technology were firm specific determinants of IFR. Given that IFR is not just about the content of disclosure, but also about employing new presentation methods, the environment of disclosure was included in the research. The overarching disclosure environment of a country was found to be an important environmental driver for IFR presentation and less strongly for IFR content. The presentation aspect of IFR was more associated with the identified determinants than the content of IFR, which suggests that Internet presentation technologies were more related to the determinants than the content of the reports on the company Web sites.