Affiliations: [a] Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford,
Oxford, UK | [b] EGADE, ITESM, Monterrey, Mexico | [c] School of Economics, University of East Anglia,
Norwich, UK
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: William Dutton, Oxford Internet
Institute, University of Oxford, 1 St Giles', Oxford OX1 3JS, UK. Tel.: +44
1865 287 210; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The growing use of the Internet and other information and
communication technologies (ICTs) in e-government services raises important new
issues of 'cyber trust' that could have a significant influence on governance
structures and practices in the future. This paper argues that at the heart of
debates about cyber trust in e-government is a 'trust tension' between the need
to collect data on individuals as the basis for providing services and fears
about the inappropriate use of personal information gathered, stored, and
analysed using ICTs. It draws on studies of experiences in e-commerce and
e-business, as well as e-government, to illuminate the nature of cyber trust
and its wider social dimensions, including the main related challenges faced in
e-government and some strategies, products and services for dealing with
them.
