E-Commerce Times Talkback

Re: Does Anyone Read Online Privacy Policies?
Posted by: ECT News 2001-06-16 16:45:18

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At Amazon.com, the link to the privacy policy is at the bottom of the home
page, in small print. At Buy.com, the policy measures 10 printed pages and
5,200 words in length. To read the full policy at Outpost.com, visitors
have to click out and back into the policy page at least twice.

Though the public's desire for privacy protection within e-commerce is
well-documented, the vast majority of online shoppers appear unwilling
to take the time to read an e-tailer's privacy policy. "Some people read privacy
policies, but it's a tiny minority," Susannah Fox, director of
research at the Pew
Internet and American Life Project in Washington, D.C., told the
E-Commerce Times. "People aren't that aggressive when it comes to
protecting their own privacy."

One Reason Nobody Reads A Privacy Policy...
Posted by: Michael 2001-07-18 11:26:27 In reply to: ECT News

After reading a few dissertations on the handling of my private information, the length of such documents appear to rival 'war and peace' in length, and is about as clear as the original novel (in russian). In this case, I feel that there is no reason to read the statement, which in turn, give me one less reason to revisit the site for whatever reason I was there in the first place.
If there is only one site, (or perhaps a few) offering me the product I want and the privacy statement is excessively long or complicated, I return to the stone age method of a phone call or visit to my local retailer. If this is not an option, perhaps I need to review my need for the product!
The lazy or anxious consumer may forgive everything, if he can get what he seeks quickly and with minimal pain.
And this is the real issue. What level of pain is the consumer willing to tolerate for his 'needs'? Why should he have to monitor his privacy when the site owners should have the same feeling about his privacy that he does? He doesn't want to be a policy policeman. He has better things to do with his time than to keep track of online retailers who would take advantage of him. The next fancy widget is calling him. Or is it the cry of his hungry child?

Re: Does Anyone Read Online Privacy Policies?
Posted by: Madhurima 2001-06-18 06:43:30 In reply to: ECT News

It's not that the people are too lazy to protect their own interests. But they perceive the internet as a 'time reducing medium' and the privacy policies are ever so long. The main or the differing features should be highlighted for people to read them. The idea is to reduce the time taken to do anything, not lengthen it!

Re: Does Anyone Read Online Privacy Policies?
Posted by: Fred Frinkle 2001-06-28 09:50:01 In reply to: Madhurima

Some E-commerce sites that do not carry ads can be confident that their practices protect consumers. However, do not forget that every Web site that carries ads receives cookies from ad-serving companies, most of which profile (track) users across sites. These third-party ad servers end up learning plenty about users as they visit even the most careful and privacy-friendly of sites. Even if the information gathered on these sites is not personally identifiable, it is aggregated with info gathered on other sites.

Some of these third-party ad servers admit to collecting personally identifiable information on some of their other sites, but they then claim that they do not merge names with the info collected on all the sites they serve ads onto.
One can either believe them or wonder why, if no merging is ever involved, they crowd their data servers with personally identifiable information at all.

It must be said that even sites with the best intentions cannot guarantee their users protection from the third-party ad servers they work "with".

Re: Does Anyone Read Online Privacy Policies?
Posted by: Craig Tindall 2001-06-18 18:13:28 In reply to: Madhurima

Madhurima brings up an excellent point. I am a lawyer practicing, writing and speaking about privacy and - true confession - I don't read privacy policies very closely at all when I am transacting for my own benefit (although with research and representation-related matters, I take a very different approach, of course.) Consequently, I believe that standardization of privacy policies would be a great help. People could then find in the policy what is important to them. Those who are concerned should take heart; this is the essence of P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences), the software 'solution' for privacy -- at least online privacy (offline is a whole other matter). P3P is being developed by the creators of the internet, W3C, and it is NOT a proprietary product (least mention of it gets edited out here). It is an open standard available to all developers. P3P has its critics and its weaknesses, but it is a start, and hopefully only one of the tools that will be available to consumers who desire privacy protection. Anyone that wants to know more about P3P can easily find more information in any search engine.