Shoppers can expect less privacy at the top American online stores - and it's not just Amazon.com. SimplyQuick.com - an independent guide to online shopping and travel - followed up its late June survey of the most popular online shopping sites and found a marked trend to less privacy by late September, that is in just 3 months.
Of 101 top sites surveyed in June, 87 required personal information to access their services. Of these 87 sites, 32 (36.8%) clearly undertook not to send personal details to third parties. By the end of September, two sites had closed and, of the 85 surviving sites, the number giving such an undertaking was down to 27 (31.8%). Of 12 sites coming to major popularity and added to the survey since June, only 3 (25.0%) made the undertaking.
In June 10 sites (11.5%) gave clients NO ability to control 3rd parties receiving their details in some circumstances. By September, this had risen to 11 of the original sites (12.9%) whilst 3 of the 12 new sites (25.0%) were the same.
The downward trend in privacy guarantees was also evident in the more detailed "star" rankings, where, amongst others, E-bay and Barnes and Noble slipped a grade. Of three sites given a top, five star rating for privacy in June, only one - Sears - retained that rating in September. Two of the three sites given zero stars in June had cleaned up their act, but two sites were added to the zero rating: More.com - which is being taken to court for breaching its privacy policy - and E-style - for an unclear policy.
COMMENT
"Increasing legalese is the order of the day" comments the CEO of SimplyQuick.com. He says that:
"Stores are under a three-fold pressure. First, the commercial pressure to extract maximum value from customer information. Second, the increasing numbers and depth of alliances in the B2C field, reinforce this commercial pressure and complicate the safeguarding of customer information. Third, concern over legal action and awareness of the complexities of handling cyber-information is shifting the emphasis from protecting the customer to protecting the store."
"These pressure will continue to outweigh vague consumer unease over privacy of information online,until there is a simple way for consumer preferences over privacy to be articulated and safeguarded."