Information Privacy Concerns of Real Estate Customers and Information Security in the Real Estate Industry: an Empirical Analysis

An organisation in the real estate industry that uses information systems for its daily business operations for storing and transferring customers’ data is a potential target of cyber-attacks. However, real estate is an understudied industry in terms of information security and customers’ information security privacy concerns. In this paper, we surveyed 82 Australian real estate customers to explore their privacy concerns when providing personal information to real estate agencies and the conditions that they are willing to provide such information. We also interviewed 20 real estate businesses to understand their current information security practices. Our findings suggested that customers are naturally concerned when providing personal information to real estate agencies and that trust plays a key role. Our findings also highlight the need for real estate organisations to enhance their information security practices. .