These notes provide an overview of the presentations and discussions at the Consumer Online Privacy sessions of the 1997 FTC privacy workshop. Representative National Survey Humphrey Taylor and Alan Westin presented and discussed the results of a Harris survey on online privacy. While the results indicate great concern about online privacy, the concern seems to be driven more by perceptions than by actual privacy violations. Children are an intensifier issue.
Women seem to be more concerned than men.
People more familiar with the medium are less likely to think government needs to regulate. Results suggest that people may be retreating from participation in electronic commerce due to privacy concerns. Several people who had conducted related surveys commented on the Harris survey results. Most said the results were reasonably consistent with their own results. Similar results were reported from global surveys, although it was noted that there seemed be a heightened sensitivity about privacy in Asia.