FTC: Consumer Privacy Comments Concerning The Boston Consulting Group--P954807 The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. The Boston Consulting Group June 11, 1997 Secretary of the Federal Trade Commission Dear Sir/Madam: Please file the enclosed Consumer Survey as a supplement to #22 for the project #P954807 regarding eTrust. If there are any problems in processing this request, or if you would like further information, please contact me at 415-732-8047. Thank you very much for your time. Sincerely, Valerie Fong encl. RUST Consumer Questions Consumer Survey ________________________________________________________________________________ Qualify to win a U.S. Robotics Pilot! Thank you for taking interest in completing our survey. It should take about 10- 15 minutes to complete. All responses will be tabulated anonymously, so please answer them as truthfully as possible. At the end be sure to include your name and mailing address so you can be eligible to win a U.S. Robotics © Pilot Organizer, which will take place the week of March 3! I: Basic Demographics How long have you used the Internet?
From where do you access the Internet?
Do you subscribe to an online service (AOL, Prodigy, Compuserve, Microsoft Network)
Where are you located?
II: Perceptions of privacy Throughout this survey we will make references to privacy and security. Privacy is defined as how businesses use the information they collect (e.g. for their own purposes vs. make available to third parties), whereas security is defined as measures a company takes to protect your information from theft. In general, how concerned are you about the privacy of your information that you give to businesses?
Are you more or less concerned about privacy of information transmitted over the Internet vs. each of the following media I have________concern about information transmitted over the Internet than telephone
I have________concern about information transmitted over the Internet than mail
In general, please explain how/why the Internet is different. Would a privacy assurance logo/statement displayed by a business increase your comfort with giving them information over the Internet? Such a logo/statement would disclose how the business will treat the information they collect from you. For example, it would disclose whether it retains the information only for exchanges between you and that business, makes it available to third parties, or does not keep any information at all. A privacy assurance logo/statement displayed by a business would my comfort in giving information over the internet
In a secure transaction, it is not possible for information to be stolen or intercepted. How much would an assurance of security by a business increase your comfort in giving information over the Internet?
How much would a combined assurance of security and privacy by a business increase your comfort in giving information over the Internet?
Which is of greater concern to you on the internet?
How concerned are you that some Web sites track the following activities without your knowledge? What I purchase:
What sites or pages I browse:
How concerned are you that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can track your activity on the Internet?
Do you consider merchants/sites recording your Internet activity with or without your knowledge to be a violation of privacy?
Do the above practices prevent you from conducting transactions on the Internet?
If yes: Would you be more likely to conduct transactions over the Internet if sites disclosed how they monitor your activities on line?
III: Potential impact of a privacy assurance program The following sections attempt to measure your current level of Internet usage, as well as the degree to which a guarantee of privacy would increase or decrease that level of usage. Such a guarantee would include a logo or statement on the company's Web site which would disclose the following information:
A privacy program would ensure that users must be able to correct and update personally identifiable information and be able to request to be deleted from any such databases. Further, sites may not monitor personal communications such as email or instant messages, and no personally identifiable information may be displayed or made available without the user's consent, unless such information is already publicly available. Given the above description, please indicate the condition under which you would engage in each of the following activities over the Internet.
IV: Sensitivity of Information How do you feel about giving the following types of information to businesses over the Internet?
How important is the reputation of the company in your decision to give your information to them over the Internet?
How comfortable are you in giving personal information (e.g. name, address, credit card number, product preferences) over the Internet to each of the following entities
How comfortable are you in giving more sensitive personal information (e.g. social security number, bank account number, stock portfolio information, medical history, etc.) over the Internet to each of the following entities
Given two equivalent Web sites offering the same products and/or services, but one has privacy assurance and the other does not, how much would you be willing to pay for the products on the site where privacy is assured?
V: Acceptance How important is it for a privacy assurance program to have the following endorsements to be credible?
How important is it for a privacy assurance program to have the following processes to be credible?
What percent of online businesses should be audited annually to make a privacy assurance program credible?
VI. Additional demographics (optional) Age:
Occupation: Annual salary:
END Thank you for participating. May we follow-up with a phone call at a later time if we wish to clarify your responses?
Phone #: Contact Information Please provide us with contact information so that we can get in touch with you if you're selected as the winner in our U.S. Robotics Pilot drawing! (Only individuals giving us some way of contacting them will be eligible for the drawing. This information will be confidential, and specifics will NOT be distributed to any other party.) Complete only the sections you feel comfortable completing. As long as there is some way for us to reach you, you will be entered in our drawing. First Name: Street City: Submit this survey! |