Trusting and Adopting E-Government Services in Developing Countries? Privacy Concerns and Practices in Rwanda

E-government is a strong focus in many developing countries. While services can technically benefit from solutions developed elsewhere, organizational development and user trust and acceptance are always local. In Least Developed Countries (LDCs) such issues become more dramatic as services are transformed quickly from traditional manual procedures to digitized ones copying models from developed countries. One of the most critical trust issues is privacy protection; c-government services must be developed in balance with citizens' privacy views. To understand how to design trusted services in an LDC this study investigates information privacy concerns, perceptions of privacy practices, trust beliefs and behavior intentions towards using e-government services in Rwanda. The study was conducted by means of a survey (n = 540). A majority of the respondents had a considerable level of trust, and a positive view of the effectiveness of service providers' privacy practices. Most respondents expressed positive intentions towards using c-government services. Still, a majority of the respondents expressed considerable privacy concerns. Men were more concerned than women and reported a higher reluctance to use c-government service. As this study is one of the few studies of privacy, trust and adoption of c-government in LDC, it contributes to broadening the context in which such issues have been researched.