Women want privacy - women more concerned about privacy issues; Louis Harris & Associates survey for Privacy & American Business

American Demographics, Jan, 1998 by Nancy Ten Kate

American women are much more concerned about privacy issues than men. They are especially concerned about privacy threats to their medical, insurance, and financial information, as well as online privacy issues.

In 1996, 58 percent of women said they were very concerned about threats to their privacy today, compared with 33 percent of men, according to a new survey. "Strong privacy concerns by American women are an important driving force behind an unprecedented wave of state privacy laws in 1997," says Alan F. Westin, professor of public law and government at Columbia University. He conducted the survey for Opinion Research Corporation.

Thirty-four states passed consumer privacy legislation in 1997. The new laws reflecting women's concerns forbid health insurers and employers from using genetic tests, strengthen confidentiality rules for handling individual medical records, limit hours that telemarketers can call homes, and control third-party access to driver's license information.

Six in ten women with access to the Internet say that being able to communicate anonymously online was important to them, compared with 50 percent of men, according to a Louis Harris & Associates survey for Privacy & American Business. Women also do not feel that government and business can be trusted to responsibly use personal information and protect its confidentiality. Fifty-three percent of women strongly agree that "use of computers must be sharply restricted in the future if privacy is to be preserved," compared with 40 percent of men.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents to the Harris survey say the government's role in protecting Internet privacy should include passing laws now that regulate how personal information can be collected and used on the Internet.

For more information, contact Danielle Maurici at Privacy & American Business, Two University Plaza, Suite 414, Hackensack, NJ 07601; telephone (201) 996-1154.