[FYI] PEW Internet & American Life: Trust and privacy online:Why Americans want to rewrite the rules

[Frank Thomas <FrankThomasFT@netscape.net>]

Mitteilung aus NUA Internet survey newsletter: 

Pew Internet & American Life: US Internet users demand privacy online

Online privacy has become a major concern in the US, yet few Americans
are protecting themselves or know how to while they are surfing,
according to the 'The Pew Internet and American Life Project'.

The report found that 86 percent of Internet users are in favor of
an "opt in" privacy policy, which requires online companies to ask
consumers for permission to use any personal information they submit.
Twenty-seven percent of users said they would never submit personal
information.

Fifty-four percent of Internet users think that tracking people while
they use the Web is harmful because it invades privacy. Yet 56 percent
of Internet users are unaware that the "cookie" (a text file placed on
a user's computer by a website to help track that user's browsing
activities) is the primary online tracking tool. Only 10 percent of
Internet users have set their browsers to reject cookies.

Some Internet users were more careful about the release of personal
data: 24 percent provided a false name or information, 9 percent used
encryption to scramble their email, while "anonymizing" software, which
hides the computer identity from websites, was used by just 5 percent
of users.

Despite the privacy concerns among Internet users, 48 percent still
purchased goods online with a credit card. Financial information such
as stock prices was requested by 43 percent of users. Support-group
sites, or sites providing information about a personal situation were
used by 36 percent of Internet users, and of those, 24 percent gave
their real name or email address.

http://pewinternet.org/reports/reports.asp?Report=19&Section=ReportLevel1&Field=Level1ID&ID=43



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Frank Thomas
FTR
60 rue Gabriel Péri
92120 Montrouge
France
tél. 00331.45.29.48.69
courrier électronique: FrankThomasFT@netscape.net



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