GVU's Eighth WWW User Survey Privacy Graphs

Reasons for Not Registering

Notes:

For this question, respondents could choose more than one answer. As it has been since we began asking this question, the main reason that respondents do not register with web sites is that they do not provide a clear statement on how the information is going to be used (66%). This is followed closely by it not being worth it to access the site (63%) and not trusting the entity collecting the data (58%). The good news is that all of these percentages have dropped a few percentage points from the last survey which may be related to the fact that many sites have started making privacy policies available to web site users. It remains to be seen however, to determine if this is a consistant trend or a temporary fluctuation. There were slight rises in the percentages of respondents who don't register because they don't want to reveal a particular piece of information: address (46% Eighth, 45% Seventh), name (35% Eighth, 31% Seventh), and email address (27% Eighth, 25% Seventh). Females are more sensitive about giving out their name and addresses than males, but aren't as bothered by the time it takes to fill out the forms. Those in the 26-50 age range are more concerned about having a statement of use while those aged 19-25 are more concerned about the time it takes than other age groups. Novices are more cautious than experts about giving out their name, but experts are more cautious in all other areas.

Table of Data for All Categories

Reasons for Not Registering

All

Male

USA

50+

Intermediate

Always Register

6.01%

5.32%

6.94%

6.04%

5.06%

7.29%

4.68%

6.07%

6.70%

8.43%

5.38%

3.31%

Don t Trust

57.57%

59.64%

54.45%

57.36%

57.11%

58.97%

58.33%

57.58%

55.62%

50.15%

59.01%

66.08%

Not Worth Risk

62.78%

65.01%

59.64%

62.79%

63.86%

56.23%

60.85%

64.14%

63.08%

54.98%

63.19%

73.56%

11.50%

12.09%

10.58%

12.06%

7.71%

13.98%

10.35%

11.45%

10.58%

13.55%

9.44%

11.71%

Requires Address

46.30%

44.21%

50.12%

47.43%

40.96%

49.85%

49.68%

45.52%

42.12%

43.50%

47.80%

48.43%

Requires Email

26.92%

28.58%

24.47%

26.89%

30.84%

20.97%

28.71%

26.98%

25.02%

23.72%

27.94%

30.27%

Requires Name

34.67%

32.55%

38.11%

35.71%

26.75%

32.83%

33.93%

33.67%

34.75%

36.43%

35.13%

31.52%

66.49%

67.13%

65.93%

66.41%

69.88%

61.09%

66.34%

67.74%

64.68%

61.16%

67.83%

72.53%

Time

40.11%

43.77%

34.44%

39.97%

45.78%

41.03%

46.17%

40.90%

33.24%

31.43%

41.85%

50.03%

For more information or to submit comments:
send e-mail to www-survey@cc.gatech.edu.

GVU's WWW Surveying Team
Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0280