Online Privacy Alliance Says Web Sweeps Confirm Significant Progress in Privacy Self-regulation

Business Wire, May 12, 1999

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 1999--

Private Sector Privacy Efforts Result in 94% of Top 100 Web Sites

Posting Privacy Policies to Help Consumers

Survey Also Shows 66% of Representative Web Sites Sampled

Have Posted Privacy Policies

The Online Privacy Alliance, a coalition of global businesses and trade associations committed to consumer privacy through self-regulation, said today's release of Georgetown Internet Privacy Policy Survey confirms that significant progress has been made in safeguarding privacy in cyberspace.

The Georgetown Survey was really two surveys; one studied the top 100 sites on the Web, the second looked at 364 ".com" Web sites, a random sampling selected from the 7,500 most visited Web sites.

The survey showed that 94 percent of the top 100 Web sites had posted at least one type of privacy disclosure, up from 71 percent from last year. Of the 364 Web sites, 65.7 percent had posted at least one type of privacy disclosure (privacy policy notice or an information practice statement).

"What a difference a year makes," said Christine Varney, a former FTC Commissioner and advisor and spokeswoman for the OPA. "In a relatively short time, privacy policies have become commonplace on popular consumer Web sites and there are reputable, independent programs exercising rigorous oversight to make sure companies abide by their policies."

Varney added that the results also showed work remains to be done to make privacy policies universal on the Internet and consumers confident that their privacy is respected online.

The results of the survey were released today to the Federal Trade Commission and the advisors to the study. An electronic version of the survey will be available Thursday at www.privacyalliance.org.

The survey, conducted by Professor Mary J. Culnan of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, was requested by the Federal Trade Commission and conducted with corporate funding. Media Metrix was the source of the data for the Georgetown study. Ernst & Young hosted the data collection.

"The survey reflects the reality of the places people really go on the Web," Dr. Culnan said. "It is a good picture of privacy disclosures at 98.8 percent of the Web sites consumers visit."

The OPA will use the results to guide outreach efforts in the coming year. "Clearly we must continue to promote privacy to make sure all Web sites - including those run by start ups and small businesses - follow the example of larger businesses in posting policies and understanding the importance of protecting consumer privacy," Varney said.

"These surveys, taken together, show that industry is creating a well-lit thoroughfare on the Internet where consumers can feel safe. And consumers, while concerned about their privacy, are conducting business online in record numbers," Varney said. "Policymakers should recognize progress in self-regulation and not rush to regulate the Net in ways that could undermine electronic commerce."

The Georgetown Survey provides an update to last year's highly publicized FTC Web sweeps that appeared in last June's "Privacy Online: A Report to Congress." The Georgetown results are likely to be included in the FTC's upcoming report to lawmakers on the evolution of online privacy.

Over the last year, private industry has: created the Online Privacy Alliance of 85 companies and associations; drafted guidelines to be used by companies in writing privacy policies; developed standards for protecting children's privacy; developed a framework to guide privacy seal programs like BBBOnLine and TRUSTe; and, conducted briefings and mailings that advocated privacy protection online to more than 17,000 corporate executives at hundreds of companies nationwide.

Individually, OPA member companies have undertaken massive efforts to encourage their peers online to post privacy policies and to educate consumers in how to safeguard their privacy. Just a few of the efforts include:

-- IBM co-sponsored workshops and customer briefings on privacy,

helped sponsor both BBBOnLine and TRUSTe, supported the Call For

Action Consumer Education Campaign and announced that it would no

longer advertise on U.S. and Canadian Web sites that did not post

privacy policies.

-- America Online developed and posted privacy policies on all its

services and Web sites, including AOL.com, CompuServe, Digital

City, ICQ, AOL France, AOL Germany, AOL UK, AOL Canada, AOL Japan

and AOL Australia. A founding sponsor for both TRUSTe and

BBBOnline, AOL also has distributed privacy guidelines to all of

its advertising and commerce partners and now requires AOL

Certified Merchants to post privacy policies that adhere to the

OPA standards.

-- The American Advertising Federation is conducting a national

education campaign to reach all of its 42,000 small business

members and help them draft and post privacy policies. AAF is

conducting privacy workshops in 20 U.S. cities over the next

year.

-- NCR, like several other companies, developed products and

services to address the growing market for software and counsel