WASHINGTON, D.C.//May 8, 2001/// "Almost nine out of 10 (87 percent) online
consumers in the U.S. are "privacy assertive," refusing to give out personal
information they feel is not necessary to complete a transaction," Dr. Alan
Westin, president and publisher of the non-profit Privacy & American
Business, told Congress today. And, among `Net users, 61 percent say they
have opted against purchasing a good or service because they were unsure how
their personal information would be used, he added.
According to Westin, the driving force behind these actions is consumers’
legitimate concern over abuse of technology that result in intrusions,
manipulation, discrimination, identity theft and stalking. Westin testified
that "the work of this decade for survey researchers and Congress alike will
be to discover right blend of business initiatives and legal oversight for
business-consumer relationships, especially on the Internet."
Westin, recognized as the leading authority on privacy surveys, appeared
today before the Committee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the
House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce, which is holding a hearing on
"Opinion Surveys: What Consumers Have to Say About Information Privacy."
Based on his experience in creating and tracking consumer surveys over the
past 40 years, Westin devised his privacy segmentation of the American public
over the last decade. He said that the U.S. public divides out into three
segments with very different general approaches to privacy: Privacy
Fundamentalists, Privacy Pragmatists and Privacy Unconcerned. Privacy
Fundamentalists represent 25% of the U.S. public with an especially high
concern for privacy issues. Privacy Pragmatists, the largest segment,
represent 63% of the U.S. public who believe there should be a balance
between societal and business needs for information. The Privacy Unconcerned,
the segment that has declined from 20 to 12% of the U.S. public, have little
problem with supplying their personal information to government authorities
or business. About 125 million American adults fall into the moderate Privacy
Pragmatist category. Westin said that meriting and securing the trust of
this group should be the focus of business and lawmakers alike for the
immediate future.
For more information about today’s testimony or Dr. Westin’s survey research
on privacy, contact Irene Oujo at (201) 996-1154 or ctrslr@aol.com.
About Dr. Alan Westin and Privacy & American Business
Dr. Alan F. Westin is Professor of Public Law and Government Emeritus at
Columbia University; Publisher of Privacy & American Business; and President
of the Center for Social & Legal Research. Professor Westin’s major books on
privacy – Privacy and Freedom (1967) and Databanks in a Free Society (1972) –
were pioneering works that prompted U.S. privacy legislation and helped
launch global privacy movements in many democratic nations in the 1960s and
70s. Between 1978 and 2001, he has been the academic advisor to Louis Harris
& Associates (now Harris Interactive) for 25 national surveys of public and
leadership attitudes toward consumer, employee and citizen privacy issues, in
the United States, Canada, Germany and Britain. He has also done 20 national
planning and proprietary privacy surveys for companies, with Opinion Research
Corporation of Princeton, N.J.
In 1993, Dr. Westin founded Privacy & American Business, a non-profit think
tank that provides expert analysis and a balanced voice on business-privacy
issues. P&AB publishes a bi-monthly newsletter; conducts an annual national
conference in Washington on "Managing The Privacy Revolution"; and leads a
Corporate Privacy Officer Program and a Global Business Privacy Policies
Project. P&AB also manages www.PrivacyExchange.org – a global Internet
website on consumers, commerce and data protection worldwide, covering
privacy developments in over 100 nations.
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