Internet Privacy Update

Privacy continues to be a super hot topic for the Internet. This weeks Internet World, Interactive Age, and DM News all reported on a new Georgetown Internet Privacy Policy Study. The study found that 65.7 percent of the 364 web sites studied, which draw 99 percent of the Webs overall traffic, posted a privacy disclosure. The is a big improvement from last year when the Federal Trade Commission (www.tftc.gov) found virtually no privacy policies posted on the majority of web sites. FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky said that online companies "deserve considerable credit for making progress over the last year. There is a remarkable increase in the number of web sites posting information about their privacy practices."

The numbers show that the web community has made significant strives, but there is still much room for improvement. Only 9.5 percent of the studied sites provided what the FTC considers complete privacy disclosure.

To be avoid government regulation that could possibly hamper e-commerce growth, all companies are encouraged to develop privacy policies that furnish full disclosure. If you need help developing a privacy policy, the Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) has a web tool that can help, go to http://www.the-dma.org/pan7/dmers7c1-policy.shtml

To view M\S Database Marketings privacy policy and data philosophy, please go to http://www.msdbm.com/data_privacy_statement.htm

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