Originally published July 31 2005
Most internet surfers are oblivious to privacy pitfalls, study says
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center found that a large percentage of internet users have no idea how much jeopardy their private information is in. The average respondent answered seven out of 17 privacy-related true or false questions correctly.
U.S. Internet users are dangerously ignorant about the type of data that Web site owners collect from them and how that data is used, making them vulnerable to fraud and misuse of their personal information, a new study finds.
For the study, titled "Open to Exploitation: American Shoppers Online and Offline," 1,500 adult U.S. Internet users were asked true-or-false questions about topics such as Web site privacy policies.
The survey was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center and released last month.
Respondents generally failed the test, answering an average of seven out of 17 questions correctly.
* Seventy-five percent wrongly believe that if a Web site has a privacy policy, users' information will not be shared with third parties.
* Forty-nine percent can't identify "phishing" scam e-mail messages, whose designs mimic the legitimate companies they purport to represent in order to lure users into entering sensitive information such as Social Security numbers.
* Sixty-eight percent can't name any of the three credit reporting agencies that enable consumers to monitor for attempts at identity theft.
To address the problems identified in the study, the authors propose increased consumer education, as well as new regulations requiring retailers to disclose what data they have collected about customers and when and how they will use it.
In addition, it suggests replacing the term "Privacy Policy" used by most Web sites with the label "Using Your Information" to combat users' misconception that these documents are pledges not to share customer information.
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