Some of the most notable changes are in third party information
sharing and the use of third-party cookies, according to the report
which was based on information collected by accountancy firm Ernst
& Young.
To measure the trends, the figures from the new survey, released
yesterday, were compared to those in a report by the Federal Trade
Commission, carried out in May 2000.
According to the group, among the most popular 100 domains, the
proportion collecting personal information fell from 96% to 84%,
while the proportion using third-party cookies to track surfing
behaviour fell from 78% to 48%.
Privacy notices were found to be more prevalent, more prominent
and more complete, and more sites offer choice, especially over
whether information can be shared with third parties. The
percentage of top-100 sites offering third-party choice jumped from
77 to 93. And the use of “opt-in” as a method of choice more than
doubled, from 15% to 32%.
