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Tuesday
- August 22, 2000
86% of Internet Users: "Do
Not Disclose Personal Information"
American Internet users want
a guarantee of privacy online. An overwhelming 86% favor "opt in" policies that
would require Internet companies to seek permission from
users before they disclose personal information, according
to a new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life
Project.
This view challenges the policy
just negotiated by the Clinton Administration, the Federal
Trade Commission and a consortium of Web advertisers, which
gives Web sites the right to track Internet users unless
the users take steps to "opt out" of being monitored.
Some 54% of Internet users say such monitoring is an invasion
of privacy, compared to the 27% who agree with Internet
companies' argument that Web tracking can be helpful because
it allows them to provide customized information to consumers.
"Internet users want the
Golden Rule of the Internet to be: 'Don't do anything unto
me unless I give you permission,' " notes Lee Rainie,
Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "They
want to have a presumption of privacy when they are online.
They want to be in control of information about what they
do on the Web and they want vengeance on those who breach
their privacy promises."
Online Americans are willing
to give Web sites personal information in return for content
they like – 54% of them have done that and another 10%
say they would be willing to do that. "The most important
point is that they want to be in charge of their online
identities," says Rainie. About a quarter of Internet
users (27%) are hardcore privacy protectionists who say
they would never give personal information to a Web site.
Fully 94% of American Internet
users believe Internet firms and top executives should
be punished if they violate users' privacy online. If an
Internet company violated its own privacy policy and used
personal information in ways that run counter to a customer's
wishes, 11% of Internet users say the company's owners
should be sent to prison; 27% say the privacy-violating
company's owners should be fined; 26% say the site should
be shut down; 30% say the site should be placed on a list
of fraudulent Web sites.
These are among the findings
in a phone survey of 2,117 Americans, 1,017 of whom are
Internet users. The survey was conducted from May 19 to
June 21 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Most Internet users fear that
their privacy will be compromised, though the majority
of them know little about how their Web browsing is monitored
and hardly any have taken steps to protect themselves.
Some 86% of American Internet users are concerned about
businesses or strangers getting personal information about
them or their families. Yet 56% do not know that Web sites
and advertisers can track a user's activities by placing
computer code called a cookie on a visitor's computer.
That code makes the user's computer identifiable and makes
it possible to collect information about the Web pages
she or he has visited at a site and, in the case of some
cookies, over a whole range of sites. Only 10% of Internet
users have taken steps to block the introduction of cookies
on their machines.
"There is a yawning gap
between what Internet users want and what they know how
to do," says Susannah Fox, the Director of Research
at the Pew Internet Project and principal author of the
report, "Trust and Privacy Online: Why Americans want
to rewrite the rules." "This suggests they would
appreciate a concerted education effort on the basics of
Internet tracking and some easy-to-use technological tools
to take charge of their online privacy."
A strong streak of individualism
is evident when Americans are asked who would do the best
job setting online privacy rules. Fully 81% of Internet
users say there should be rules about how Internet companies
can track users' activities. Of those who say there should
be rules, 50% say that people who use Web sites should
set the rules; 24% say the federal government should set
the rules; and 18% say Internet companies should set the
rules. Other highlights from the survey:
Guerrilla tactics: A
modest number of users have tried to keep their privacy
by lying and a small number mask their identities. A quarter
of Internet users (24%) have lied in order to avoid giving
a Web site real information about themselves; 9% have used
encryption to scramble their email; and 5% have used software
that hides their computer identity from Web sites they
visit. The one privacy-protecting strategy employed by
lots of online Americans is the use of multiple passwords.
Two-thirds of Internet users (68%) say they use different
passwords when they register at Web sites.
Viruses are a problem, but
otherwise, Americans have not been victimized in great
numbers: 25% of Internet users have had a computer
infected by a virus, most likely from an email; 4% of
Internet users have felt threatened in some way while
they were online; 3% of Internet users have been cheated
when they tried to buy something online; fewer than 3%
of Internet users suspect their credit card information
has been swiped online.
Lots of online trust in evidence: Despite
their anxieties, Internet users engage in a wide array
of activities that require them to trust to an extraordinary
degree in each other and the businesses that run Web sites.
Some of the evidence:
- 48% of Internet users have bought something online with a credit card;
- 55% have sought health information; 43% have sought financial information
such as stock prices.
- 36% of Internet users have gone to a support-group site or one that provides
information about a specific medical condition or personal situation. Of those,
24% have signed in with their real name or email address, or written about their
own experiences for other people to read.
- 25% of Internet users have made friends with someone online that they
never knew before in the offline world.
- 26% of Internet users have responded to an email from someone they don't
know.
- 22% have put information on online calendars and used online address
books.
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