Survey Shows Consumers Detest Invasion of Online Privacy

Bel Air, MD- A joint poll conducted during the first part of April by Web Ad.vantage, Inc., a full service Internet marketing, advertising, and public relations firm, and Comcast@Home’s local content site, inBaltimore.com, has revealed a strong consumer loathing of what they perceive as an invasion of their online privacy.

In the poll, when asked, “How do the issues of online privacy sit with you?” 81 percent responded, “It’s horrible - stay out of my business and my computer!” The other responses were: “It’s not great, but I can understand why they do it” (11 percent), “There are much worse invasions of privacy going on in life that I’m worried about” (5 percent), and “It’s their right. I am accessing unprotected information and taking my chances” (3 percent).

The survey was featured on-site along with an article entitled, “Privacy Concerns and the Future of Online Purchasing”.

Privacy concerns have been growing ever since the FTC began its investigation into the practices and policies of some of the most popular web sites and Internet advertising services. Investigations and class action suits have been filed against such companies as DoubleClick and Amazon. Delegates at the 10th Annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference did not express optimism about the future of Internet privacy and said drastic measures would have to be taken if the right to online privacy were to be maintained.

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