Academics at the University of New South Wales are conducting an Internet survey to gauge what Australians really think of the World Wide Web.
"There has been a lot of hype in the media regarding the benefits of the Web. However, users often feel lost, frustrated and inundated due to the amount of information found at sites, poor site design and a lack of maintenance and structure," according to Associate Lecturer Kelly Page of the UNSW School of Marketing.
Page is conducting an Internet-based survey on the opinions of Australian Web users.
"The project hopes to gain an understanding of what Australian users really think of the Web. Is it useful for all tasks? Is it easy or hard to use? What do users think of shopping online?"
Participants will be asked a range of questions, including whether using the Web to search for information saves time and if they find it easy to communicate with companies through the Net.
The survey examines Australians' perceptions, their knowledge of the Internet, their communication of information about the Web and how they use it.
"The potential of what the Web and Web sites can provide Australian users is only as vast as what Australian users want and will use in the medium," Page says.
The online survey is open until 31 January 2000 and can be found at http://www.webaudience.unsw.edu.au.
Meanwhile, Arthur Andersen Legal has released the results of its Internet Privacy Survey, which examined the stated privacy practices of 100 Australian Web sites. It found:
- Although 72 percent of the sites surveyed collected personal information only 51 percent had a published privacy policy and only 28 percent of those sites notify their users about the specific personal information that is collected
- 71 percent of web sites with a stated privacy policy say that personal identifying information may be disclosed to third parties but one in three of those sites do not offer users a choice with respect to that disclosure
- 43 percent of the sites that collected personal information did so without the user actively providing that information
- 15 percent of web sites without a statement about third party disclosures attempted to place third party cookies (sent from ad servers)
- Only 14 percent of the sites surveyed say they give users the opportunity to have at least some personal information about them deleted from web site records.
It recommends a comprehensive internal audit of privacy practices, privacy seals, adequate privacy policies and industry association membership.
