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BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: DAILY BRIEFING | |||||||||||
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BW ONLINE DAILY BRIEFING |
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Web Privacy: People Will Tell All -- for the Right Price A new study finds consumers calm about making what some call a Faustian bargain Is forking over data on your favorite toothpaste and other purchasing habits worth a free home page? A free E-mail box? What about a free computer? Such is the trade-off many Web visitors are being asked to make, as E-commerce sites try to assemble detailed marketing databases by tempting consumers with free products and services. Many privacy advocates have branded the freebie-for-information swaps a Faustian bargain, with users exposing themselves to rapacious marketers and getting little in return. But new research from the nonprofit think tank Privacy & American Business suggests that Web users are far more pragmatic about these deals. In a spring survey of 457 Netizens, it found that just 12% of survey takers judge the data barter as an invasion of privacy. Some 86% said it is a matter of personal choice -- as long as a site clearly states what it does with the user's information. Overall, the survey takers felt relatively unthreatened by potential privacy encroachments, with 87% saying they didn't mind their data being used in general statistical analyses, 79% saying they would tolerate banner ads in exchange for the free benefit, and nearly 6 in 10 expressing comfort with E-mail addresses being shared with appropriate third parties. SAVVY SURFERS. Most privacy advocates "don't have a ghost of an understanding of how Americans feel about" exchanging some information for real benefits, says Alan J. Westin, a professor emeritus in government and law at Columbia University, and director of Privacy & American Business, which receives funding from the likes of American Express, Citicorp, and credit agencies Experian and Equifax. Westin notes that while such arrangements are often labeled as bribery or deception, in fact Web surfers are savvy about what they're giving and receiving. "There's this theory that we're all children and don't know how to make a bargain," chides Westin. He is quick to point out, however, that the deals are a two-way street. For the freebies to work, Web sites must disclose how they're using the data. Some 82% of the individuals surveyed, for instance, said that "having privacy policies would matter" to them in situations where they're asked to give up sensitive personal data. Recent research from Georgetown University shows that two-thirds of the Web's most popular 500 sites post some sort of privacy policy. The numbers drop dramatically for less-trafficked Web addresses. To help assure visitors that their candidness won't be abused, adds Westin, privacy policies -- and adequate ways of enforcing them -- must become standard among Web businesses of all sizes. "If you don't disclose the terms of the bargain," he says, "it's not a true bargain."
By Dennis Berman in New York
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