Abstract

Recognising the potential that Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs)2 offer for competitiveness and the effectiveness of communities, Governments across the globe are striving to provide online products and services3 to all user groups. There are various definitions of e-government within the literature, and the one being applied in this research is: Egovernment is the application of technology to enable, enhance and improve access to the delivery of government services for the benefit of citizens, employees and enterprise (Silcock, 2001) Whilst there are diverse definitions of e-government, there are also variations in the classification of e-government, each dependent upon the relation between the various stakeholders. Bélanger and Hiller (2005) classified e-government into six categories: Government Delivering Services to Individuals (G2IS), Government to Individuals as a Part of the Political Process (G2IP), Government to Business as a Citizen (G2BC), Government to Business in the Marketplace (G2BMKT), Government to Employees (G2E) and Government to Government (G2G). G2IS involves communication and services between government and citizens (G2C); G2IP involves the relationship that the government has with citizens as a part of the democratic process, such as e-voting. G2BC involves organizations paying taxes or filing reports, and G2BMKT focuses on business transactions between government and businesses, such as e-procurement. Electronic interactions between Government and Citizen can also be classified as a ‘Government to Citizen’ (G2C) model of eGovernment (Beynon-Davies: 2007). This is also referred to as the ‘Transactional’ stage of eGovernment, where the interaction can occur with an agency (NAO, 2007). This interaction involves the receipt or dissemination of information, the completion or submission of a form, the sending of payments, the inspection of an account, or more complicated sets of dealings. It is such transactions that can be perceived to be of sensitive nature for citizens and users are reluctant to conduct transactions, with concerns ranging from: payment security, not understanding how to integrate information and customization impacting their privacy (Belanger & Hiller; 2005). This leads onto security and privacy and their possible effects on transactional stage adoption. In this research paper the aim is to explore how UK is dealing with the issues of security, privacy and trust when adopting and using online government products or services. This is pertinent at this time as the government is taking large steps to increase adoption and usage amongst citizens. By undertaking this research, several contributions are made: Governments around the globe, including, UK are increasingly seeking success at e-Government adoption and usage and such research assists policymakers in obtaining a better understanding. For industry, private sector organizations are partners in the provision of the infrastructure and involved in many other implementation and adoption e-Government projects and research such as this allows them to consider these factors in more depth. For academics, security, privacy and trust are issues of immense importance and research such as this allows academics to become more aware of these topics.

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