Marketers don’t agree with consumers that their privacy is being violated online, a new study shows. Some 86% of Internet users are concerned about Web sites having their personal information, but nearly half of online marketers think consumers’ online privacy rights are adequately protected.
These results are from an independent survey of 370 online marketers commissioned by application service provider Responsys.com, Palo Alto, CA. Responsys compared the marketers’ beliefs against a study of 2,117 consumers’ beliefs about privacy by Pew Research, Washington, D.C.
Some 79% of Internet users believe their behavior on Web sites is tracked, though 54% of them say they’ve given personal information to a Web site.
Only 30% of the Web businesses said they collect personal information from Net users for marketing purposes.
A single set of standard online privacy rules would make consumers more confident making online transactions, said 86% of e-marketers. But 46% of them think the current industry self-regulation for online privacy is working for the industry as a whole.
Surprisingly, nearly half (49%) of e-businesses don’t have a privacy policy. Of large businesses, though, 75% have a privacy policy. In reaction, perhaps, to increased scrutiny of online practices, 64% of businesses said they updated their privacy policy “in response to changing industry standards.”
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