Top 100 sites more responsive to privacy concerns
Law and consulting firm AndersenLegal recently released the results of the 2001 AndersenLegal/Arthur Andersen Privacy Policy Survey, its second survey of the privacy policies of Australia's top 100 Web sites. Compared with the 2000 survey (released last October), this year's results show a marked improvement in the quality and quantity of privacy policies on the sites.
This year, 66 percent of the surveyed sites had a privacy policy posted, compared with just 51 percent last year. Some 93 percent of the top 100 collect personal information about visitors, up from 75 percent last year.
But use of cookies is down dramatically, with 81 percent of sites opting to collect information actively (eg by having users fill out forms) compared with just 59 percent in 2000.
Although more of the sites are collecting information about visitors, the survey results show they are paying increasing attention to personal privacy.
Doing so is absolutely critical to business viability online, says Duncan Giles, e-business partner with AndersenLegal, who also chairs the Internet Industry Association's Privacy Task Force.
-Businesses have to preserve trust or consumers aren't going to go with them," says Giles. -Unless they protect privacy they're not going to protect trust, and they're going to lose customers just as they're trying to steer them into the most efficient channel they can have. Companies should treat legislation as a blueprint to resolve those best practice issues, rather than as a legal compliance issue."
Of the 66 Web sites having a privacy policy:
|
Criteria |
2001 Survey |
2000 Survey |
|
Details how it will use personal information it collects for internal
purposes |
85% |
86% |
|
Say the site will use collected information to communicate with the user
|
82% |
77% |
|
User control over future communications |
||
|
Allow user to opt out of receiving future communications |
17% |
64% |
|
Allow user to opt into receiving future communications |
24% |
12% |
|
Say they offer a choice but do not specify whether it's opt-in or opt-out |
35% |
6% |
|
Don't say anything about allowing user to opt in or out |
24% |
18% |
|
User control over information being given to third parties
|
||
|
Detail disclosure of information to third parties |
76% |
88% |
|
Does or may disclose personal identifying information to third parties
|
38% |
71% |
|
Allows users to opt in to disclosure of information to third parties
|
53% |
57% |
|
Allows users to opt out of disclosure of information to third parties
|
5% |
3% |
|
Say they offer a choice but do not specify whether it's opt-in or opt-out
|
10% |
6% |
|
Don't say anything about opting in or out |
32% |
34% |
|
Have privacy seal on site |
3% |
4% |
|
Site says steps are taken to secure personal information held by site
|
40% |
38% |
|
Allow users to review some of the information held about them |
38% |
28% |
|
Allow users to have inaccuracies in data corrected |
39% |
28% |
|
Allow users to delete at least some personal information |
17% |
14% |
