12/09/96 - 03:59 AM ET - Click reload often for latest version
A third of Internet users in a new survey say they've given false demographic information at Web sites, primarily because they aren't told how their personal data will be used and fear it will end up on direct marketing lists.
"People online seriously value their anonymity and privacy," says researcher Jim Pitkow of the Georgia Institute of Technology, whose sixth World Wide Web user survey will be out this week. "People have a lower threshold (for direct marketing) on line." Most objected to it more strongly than to postal junk mail.
Although it's not necessarily representative, the survey provides a snapshot of 14,000 Web users who answered on-line questionnaires, says Pitkow, who has collected data twice yearly since January 1994. Findings are being posted at http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys. The latest findings aren't scheduled to be posted until Tuesday.
Pitkow first asked about online privacy last spring; he expanded that section this time because so little research has been done on the increasingly controversial subject.
Seventy percent didn't want to give personal data because plans for its use aren't explained; 66% called it "too risky," while 62% didn't trust those collecting it. Most felt strongly that they should control their own data, but 74% would share it if told how it would be used.
"The fear that privacy is going to be taken away online is well-founded," says Vanderbilt marketing professor Donna Hoffman. But marketers on the Web will be forced to heed consumer concerns: "In a world where you are in charge of what you see and where you go, why shouldn't it be up to you whether you want to give information about yourself?"
By Leslie Miller, USA TODAY
