By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
March 13, 2001
Michael is an online shopping fan, but he doesn’t worry too much about what may happen when his computer zaps his credit card number into the world wide ether.
“I figure that if something does go wrong, the credit card companies will back you up,” he says.
If you’re like most people, one of the last things you look for when you visit a Web site is a seal or other evidence that it adheres to a strict information privacy policy.
It should be the first, according to consumer groups and electronic privacy advocates.
That’s because every time you click on an Internet site–even those having nothing to do with e-commerce–you are taking the chance that some marketer or Web host will take the opportunity to gather personal information about you without your knowledge, says the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Even worse, many sites then sell the data–which can include what sorts of items you purchase online, what Web sites you frequent, your e-mail address, and all manner of information on such private matters as your income, occupation, religion, hobbies and marital status which you supply when you sign a site’s “guest book” or registry.
To make consumers more aware of the perils of privacy violations and to provide an independent means to determine whether a site can be trusted, three online “privacy certification” program are offering seals of approval to companies that follow strict standards about the collection and marketing of sensitive information.
And moves are under way in Congress to make it mandatory that Web sites not only fully disclose what information they gather and how they intend to use it, but also to give consumers the choice of whether the company can share their information with any third parties.
For now, though, the three voluntary programs are all the regulatory muscle that exists to make companies or nonprofit organizations comply with basic privacy restrictions and give consumers at least some sense of whether their privacy rights will be protected.
All three require those companies or groups seeking their approval to clearly explain whether they collect information and how they will use it, allow consumers to “opt-out” of having their information used, provide regular monitoring to make sure the sites are abiding by their pledges, and offer dispute resolution programs if they have not.
So far, these programs collectively have given their blessing no more than 3,000 e-commerce sites_barely a drop in the Internet ocean of hundreds of thousands of such online marketplaces.
And Washington watchdog Consumers Union and other similar groups complain that the programs haven’t devoted enough energy to getting tough on sites that operate fast and loose with personal data.
For now, frequent online shopper Sandra Lee has taken privacy matters into her own hands.
“I opened up another credit account and had the bank set it at a really low spending limit,” says Sandra Lee, 32, of Bucktown. “This is the card I use when I shop online. It’d still be a pain if someone got the numbers, which they haven’t yet, but at least they won’t be able to go on a huge spree, and I won’t be without a credit card.”
Contributing: Scripps Howard
