May 12, 1999 - Nearly one year ago, the Federal Trade Commission surveyed commercial sites on the World Wide Web and found that there was no information about privacy on the vast majority of sites oriented toward consumers. Today the Draft Georgetown Internet Privacy Policy Survey, finds that while more Web sites are communicating to consumers about privacy, meaningful and effective privacy protections for consumers are still few and far between. While 65.7% of the Web sites are providing consumers with at least some information aobut their use of personal information, less than 10% are meeting the basic requirements for privacy notices called for by Industry leaders, the Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and the advocacy community.

Key survey findings:

92.9% of the sites were collecting some kind of "personally identifying information."

Advocates reiterated their call for effective privacy protections based on the Fair Information Practices first created by a Congressional Commission over 20 years ago. Susan Grant, Vice President of Public Policy at the National Consumers League said, "It's time to stop asking if self-regulation alone will work. The right question for the FTC, Industry, and Congress to ask is: 'How do we ensure that consumers' privacy is protected on the Net.'"

Jerry Berman, Executive Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, added, "Rather than being used as a political football, the survey and ongoing industry and advocacy efforts should provide the factual basis for all parties to come together and develop the mix of self-regulation, regulation, technical tools and education to provide privacy protections across the 'Net."

Jean Ann Fox, Director of Consumer Protection at Consumer Federation of America, said "Consistent privacy policy notices and Fair Information Practices are essential for consumer confidence in the global electronic marketplace. The current uneven notices are confusing to consumers." "Everyone should be entitled to privacy -- online and offline," noted Beth Givens, Project Director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Recognizing that the ongoing efforts of Truste, BBB Online, the Online Privacy Alliance and others are critical, Ken McEldowney, Executive Director of Consumer Action said, "We look forward to working with industry leaders but we must ensure that privacy protections are ubiquitous and enforceable all across the Web." Ram Avrahami, Director of The NAMED, a citizens privacy group, said, "We need to recognize that the survey only measured one element of Fair Information Practice -- Notice -- and that there is still a long road ahead to ensure the full range of Fair Information Practices are in place on the Web."

The Georgetown Internet Privacy Policy Survey was conducted by Mary Culnan with encouragement from the FTC and funding from several companies and trade associations. The Survey benefited from the advice and input of a diverse advisory group composed of the consumer and privacy organizations above, along with companies and trade associations working on Internet privacy. The survey consisted of a random sample from a pool of 7,500 of the most visited Web sites (in January 1999). The original FTC survey conducted in 1998 looked at a much larger random sample of 674 U.S. .com sites out of a base of 226,644. Comparisons between the two survey's findings should be done with caution.

Also released today was another privacy survey, this one commissioned by the Online Privacy Alliance, a coalition of businesses and trade groups, to look at 100 most popular web sites.

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