Slowly, More Consumers Consider Website Privacy Policies Before Buying

PC Pro recently reported the results of a recent Forrester Research study. Forrester surveyed 37,000 consumers in North America, and found that a growing percentage of consumers consider companies' website privacy policies in their decisions about whether to do business with a company:

"Websites need to rethink their privacy policies as consumers ditch those that hide data rules or leak information, according to research from Forrester. The analyst found that a growing number of consumers were reading how companies dealt with their privacy and voting with their feet if they didn’t like what they saw."

More than half of survey respondents over 55 years of age said that they refused to complete an online transaction because of the company’s terms of use or privacy policy. In 2008, 40% answered this question the same way.

The PC Pro article would have been more helpful if it linked directly to the Forrester Research report and included more facts. The Forrester research study found:

"Individuals see different types of data differently -- they're most worried about what we consider individual identity data, and far less concerned about the capture and use of their behavioral data... Most consumers are willing to share their data in exchange for value. But, what they consider "valuable" is very age-dependent..."

If the article had included examples of well-crafted privacy policies, this would help consumers learn about what to look for in privacy policies -- at websites, social networking websites, and with mobile-device apps. In 2011, the European Union Justice Commissioner described four pillars of online data privacy, which is a good start for any corporate privacy policy.

In 2008, a brief review of the privacy policy at Mint.com prompted a huge discussion on this blog -- that still continues today.