Aust, global consumers -put at risk" by Web sites - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Aust, global consumers -put at risk" by Web sites

By Stephen Withers, 0
November 12, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Aust-global-consumers-put-at-risk-by-Web-sites/0,139023166,120269877,00.htm

An international study has cast doubt on the credibility of consumer-oriented Web sites.

After examining 460 health, finance and price-comparison web sites around the world -- including 30 in Australia -- Consumers International and Consumer WebWatch said "consumers must use extreme caution when soliciting information from certain sites because it is often difficult to determine whether the information is authentic and/or accurate."

For example, approximately half of the health and financial sites omitted appropriate warnings such as the need to obtain individual professional guidance, and a similar number did not provide full information about the authority and credentials of the people behind the advice provided.

"Consumers are being put at risk by misleading, inaccurate and incomplete information, for example, where they need to seek health or financial help. There is an urgent need for consumers to be alerted to this matter," said Anna Fielder, director for Consumers International's Office for Developed and Transition Economies.

The study, conducted between April and July this year, also found that 60 percent of sites failed indicate whether or not commercial interests such as partners, sponsors or advertisers influenced their content. "Internationally, we see a lot of web sites clearly are not playing fair when it comes to separating what is supposed to be objective editorial content from economic concerns," said Beau Brendler, director of Consumer WebWatch.

Brendler also warned that research performed by the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab showed that the average consumer pays much more attention to a site's design than to its content. "Consumers need to dig deeper, and Web sites need to do a better job of disclosing information that helps them make more informed choices," he said.

The Australian Consumers Association is a member of Consumers International, which is a global federation of over 250 consumer organisations in 115 countries. Consumer WebWatch is a US based non-profit research project.