Most consumers do not trust companies to handle their personal information properly, says a new survey from Harris Interactive. However, independent verification of company privacy policies would satisfy 62% of consumers, the survey reports. And 84% think such verification should be a requirement for companies today.
The top three major concerns consumers expressed in the survey are that companies will provide their personal information to other companies without permission (75%); that their transactions may not be secure (70%); or that hackers could steal their personal data (69%).
While strong majorities of consumers report they are taking direct actions to assert their privacy--such as refusing to give information to companies if they feel it to be too personal or not really needed--similar strong majorities say they want companies to communicate and follow good privacy policies.
However, because trust in companies is low, the survey reveals that having a company's privacy practices verified by a third party would lead 91% to do more business with such a firm. 58% say that if they were confident that a company--whether offline or online--really followed its privacy policies, they would be likely to recommend that company to friends and family.
"These results offer powerful evidence that if American business wants to affect the attitudes and activities of today's consumer, independent verification is the single most preferred action to accomplish such a rise in trust," said Alan Westin, founder of Privacy & American Business, professor emeritus at Columbia University and the survey's academic advisor.
The survey also found that 83% of consumers say they would stop doing business with a company entirely if they heard or read that the company misused customer information.
The survey, "Privacy On and Off the Internet: What Consumers Want," was designed to examine consumer attitudes about how companies handle consumer privacy both online and offline. It was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Privacy & American Business, a not-for-profit public policy think tank, and was sponsored by Ernst & Young LLP and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The national survey, which was conducted online from November 5-11, 2001, interviewed 1,529 adults aged 18 or over and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
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