22% of top e-stores fail basic privacy tests: study

Press Release, April 7, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 7, 2001; Wellington, New Zealand: Over a fifth of the top U.S. online B2C sites fail basic privacy tests according to a new study.

STUDY

SimplyQuick guides - who provide independent information comparing services and privacy at top shopping and travel sites - have surveyed privacy at such sites for the past 9 months. 116 top sites were reviewed according to three criteria:
- Privacy policy: Does the policy provide that shoppers can easily opt out from having personal information sent to 3rd parties or clearly guarantee that it will not be?
- Spamming: If shoppers unsubscribe from newsletters etc., will the site continue to send e-mails more than 3 days after the opt out?
- Spying: Does the site, or its advertisers, try to spy on the hard drives of visitors' computers?

Using information from its own surveys, SimplyQuick found that 26 of the sites (22.4%) failed one or more of these tests.

17 sites had weak privacy policies, including Amazon and e-Bay (who downgraded their privacy policy this month). L L Bean was included in this group, as its policy requires customers to write a snail mail letter to the store to opt out from having their details passed on.

8 sites were caught spamming customers, including - surprisingly - J C Penney, who say they practice "permission based marketing". In some cases, the spam may be due to technical failure or incompetence rather than deliberate policy.

2 sites were caught spying: Planet Rx and ZD Net.

The total is 26, not 27, as one store (drugstore.com) appears twice, failing both on its privacy policy and on spamming.

COMMENT

Dr Simon Smelt, CEO of SimplyQuick Guides, comments: "That more than one in five top sites clearly fail to provide a basic level of privacy to visitors and customers is disappointing. These are all major sites, who are well able to meet the general preferences and concerns that have been voiced over privacy of personal information on the web. Instead, the value of that personal information or legal or technical complications appear to have driven policy and practice at these sites."
"Other sites that we reviewed may also fail to deliver basic privacy - it's just that we didn't catch them."
"In June we will be comparing the state of privacy policies at top sites with that obtaining a year ago. The evidence to date is of a clear and widespread downgrading in such policies."

Simon Smelt
SimplyQuick.com April 2001

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Company contact:
Dr Simon Smelt
Chief Executive
media@simplyquick.com

SimplyQuick.com
PO Box 29-030
#318 Harbour City Tower
Wellington
New Zealand
Tel: 64-4-934-2198
Fax: 64-4-934-2197
contact@simplyquick.com

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