However, anonymity continues to play an important role in online privacy, with many sites allowing users to access web services without disclosing personal data. EPIC recommends that sites continue to support anonymity while developing policies and practices to protect information privacy. The protection of privacy is one of the most important issues on the Internet today. Internet users routinely report that privacy protection is one of their greatest concerns. More Internet sites are collecting personal information from users through online registrations, surveys, and forms.
Web users are understandably concerned about the potential loss of privacy.
We set out to determine what privacy policies and practices were actually in place on the most popular web sites today. We were interested in determining when personal information was being collected. We wanted to see if web sites had explicit privacy policies and how good those policies were. We were curious if sites made it possible for individuals to view their own information collected at the site. We checked to see if users could visit a site anonymously.