Many factors are important in decisions about information disclosure. When deciding whether to provide information to Web sites, our respondents report that the most important factor is whether or not information will be shared with other companies and organizations. Other highly important factors include whether information is used in an identifiable way, the kind of information collected, and the purpose for which the information is collected. Whether a site posts a privacy policy, whether a site has a privacy seal of approval, and whether a site discloses a data retention policy were viewed as important, but considerably less so than the other factors we asked about. Acceptance of the use of persistent identifiers varies according to their purpose.
Internet users dislike automatic data transfer.
While our respondents said they are interested in tools that make using the Web more convenient, most do not want these tools to transfer information about them to Web sites automatically. Internet users dislike unsolicited communications. Respondents indicated a strong desire to avoid unsolicited communications resulting from providing information to Web sites. A joint program of privacy policies and privacy seals seemingly provides a comparable level of user confidence as that provided by privacy laws. We described a scenario in which a Web site with interesting information related to a favorite hobby asks for a visitor's name and postal address in order to provide free pamphlets and coupons.