Information Privacy Protection in E-government in Rwanda

Abstract

Privacy of information is a critical issue for e‐government service development as lack of it negatively influences users' trust and adoption. To earn user trust, government organizations need to provide reliable privacy assurance by implementing adequate information privacy protection practices. African least developed countries (LDCs) today develop e‐government, but the status of privacy protection in these countries is not clear. This research aims to help in the achievement of the successful protection of information privacy in e-government in an LDC country, Rwanda. For this, empirical studies were conducted to increase understanding of issues re-lated to information privacy in e-government in Rwanda. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods was applied for data collection and analysis.

The results show that Rwandans’ concerns about information privacy in e-government context are high, that organizational information privacy protection practices can reduce users concerns, but also that existing privacy protection practices are not adequate to ensure users’ privacy. The studies also find that users are more concerned with e-government services than with other types of electronic services. Based on these findings, this thesis suggests a set of guidelines for government organizations in Rwanda in order to achieve effective information privacy protection practices.

The thesis contributes to the body of knowledge in the fields of e-government and information privacy by providing empirical studies from an African LDC context and developing and testing a new model explaining the links between organizational information privacy protection practices, privacy concerns and the related antecedents and consequences, hence enhancing the theoretical understanding of these relations. The thesis contributes to practice by providing a set of guidelines that can guide government organizations in Rwanda, and/ or other African LDCs in a similar situation in the process of developing information privacy protection practices.