GVU's Seventh WWW User Survey Privacy Graphs

Knowledge of Information Logged per Page Request

Notes:

Nearly all users correctly reported that for each page they request, the time of the request and the page name can be recorded (89.45% and 87.20% respectively). This does not represent any shift in user understanding from the Sixth Survey. Users are also fairly well educated in the facts that their machine name and type/version of browser can also be normally logged (76.83% and 72.56% respectively). Three fifths (60.78%) believe that a session identifier that persists across sessions can be recorded. This is possible today via the issuing of cookies. Over half of the users reported that their email address could be recorded (57.41%), which is not true according to HTTP 1.0 and HTTP 1.1 specifications (HTTP is specifies the language used to transfer data on the Web). Only 8.5% reported that they did not know.

Overall, males are most certain about which information could be logged than females, especially with respect to session Ids (67.31% male vs. 47.05% female), browser type/version (79.09% male vs. 58.95% female), and machine name (82.53% male vs. 64.82% female). There are a few categories (machine name, session Id, and email) where different age groups differed, the other categories received similar response rates.

Table of Data for All Categories

Knowledge of Information Logged per Page Request	All	Male	Female	USA	Europe	19-25	26-50	50+
Don t Know	1191.00 8.50%	459.00 4.84%	710.00 16.09%	998.00 8.91%	52.00 5.72%	213.00 8.47%	634.00 7.53%	182.00 9.61%
Email Address	8045.00 57.41%	5333.00 56.27%	2643.00 59.90%	6580.00 58.76%	392.00 43.12%	1245.00 49.50%	4951.00 58.79%	1198.00 63.25%
Location	5735.00 40.92%	4012.00 42.33%	1679.00 38.06%	4477.00 39.98%	398.00 43.78%	1018.00 40.48%	3414.00 40.54%	823.00 43.45%
Machine	10767.00 76.83%	7822.00 82.53%	2860.00 64.82%	8599.00 76.79%	759.00 83.50%	2054.00 81.67%	6572.00 78.03%	1304.00 68.85%
OS	8017.00 57.21%	6108.00 64.44%	1850.00 41.93%	6444.00 57.55%	558.00 61.39%	1455.00 57.85%	4984.00 59.18%	947.00 50.00%
Requested Page	12220.00 87.20%	8571.00 90.43%	3550.00 80.46%	9782.00 87.35%	802.00 88.23%	2200.00 87.48%	7461.00 88.59%	1598.00 84.37%
Screen Size	1709.00 12.19%	1307.00 13.79%	383.00 8.68%	1340.00 11.97%	124.00 13.64%	360.00 14.31%	1033.00 12.27%	164.00 8.66%
Session ID	8518.00 60.78%	6380.00 67.31%	2076.00 47.05%	6921.00 61.81%	538.00 59.19%	1420.00 56.46%	5340.00 63.41%	1132.00 59.77%
Time of Request	12536.00 89.45%	8779.00 92.63%	3660.00 82.96%	10044.00 89.69%	822.00 90.43%	2244.00 89.22%	7644.00 90.76%	1665.00 87.91%
Which Browser	10169.00 72.56%	7496.00 79.09%	2601.00 58.95%	8158.00 72.85%	698.00 76.79%	1852.00 73.64%	6260.00 74.33%	1257.00 66.37%

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