Online Privacy Policies: An Assessment of the Fortune E-50
Privacy concerns of consumers threaten to stall the growth of e-commerce. Both industry leaders and government officials are struggling with how to address the problem. One solution suggested by both groups is for online companies to comply with the fair information practices of Notice, Choice, Access, and Security, and to post a privacy policy that reflects this compliance. A content analysis of the privacy policies of the firms in the Fortune e-50 indicates that 5.7% of the business-to-consumer firms fully comply with all fair information practices, 62.8% partially comply, and 31.4% fail to comply with one or more fair information practices. In addition 15 of the companies in the Fortune e-50 were identified as business-to-business firms and of these only three posted a privacy policy, all three of which were noncompliant.