On September 19, 2005, TRUSTe and Ponemon Institute, a think tank dedicated to privacy and data protection research, announced the finalists for their second annual Most Trusted Company for Privacy Award.

More than 7,000 consumers were surveyed to collect their opinions regarding online companies’ privacy practices. Survey participants were not given company names to rate; instead they were asked for the companies they considered noteworthy for their trustworthiness. Participants identified, unaided, the following companies (listed in rank order with last year’s top-20 rank in parentheses) for taking most care with personal information:

1. American Express (2)
2. Amazon (4)
3. Proctor & Gamble -- all brands (3)
4. Hewlett-Packard (5)
5. eBay (1)
6. AOL
7. U.S. Postal Service (6)
8. Dell (10)
9. IBM (7)
10. EarthLink (8)
11. Google
12. Charles Schwab
13. Apple -- includes iPod (19)
14. Johnson & Johnson -- all brands (14)
15. WebMD
16. E-Loan (17)
17. Washington Mutual (20)
18. Federal Express
19. Yahoo!
20. USAA
21. Disney (11)

This year, a tie produced 21 finalists instead of 20.

Survey participants registered greater concern about privacy in a year when privacy issues made headlines and identity theft became the fastest growing crime in the United States. The percentage of respondents calling the privacy of personal data “important” and “very important” grew by 1.4 percent each, to a combined total of 84.8 percent. TRUSTe was pleased to note that eight of the finalists are TRUSTe sealholders, and an additional three participate in the Bonded Sender program.

Fourteen companies among the 187 companies included in last year’s survey experienced a security breach over the past year. Prior to the breaches, these companies as a group ranked five percent above the average. This year, the same group ranked 22 percent below the average.

Phishing also had significant impact on 2005 privacy trust scores for organizations identified as the most frequent targets. According to Larry Ponemon, founder of Ponemon Institute, “Eleven organizations that experienced persistent phishing attacks during 2005, on average, experienced a 13 percent decline in overall ratings.” Companies hit the hardest were major retail banking organizations.

“Consumers showed increased understanding of privacy issues this year, citing resolution of personal privacy concerns, media reports about the company’s privacy practices and respect for consumers’ privacy significantly more often compared to last year, and the company’s overall reputation less often,” said Dr. Ponemon. “More people understand that companies with good products are not necessarily better at managing privacy issues.”

Respondents cited a wide range of factors as key points to consider in judging the companies’ trustworthiness. Factors cited by more than a third of the participants:

• Overall reputation of the company for product or service quality
• The company’s stated limits on the collection, use, and sharing of personal information
• High-quality advertisements and solicitations respectful of customers’ privacy
• Sense of security protections when providing personal information
• The privacy policy of the company

TRUSTe and the Ponemon Institute, with the help of Watchfire, a website-compliance software maker, will now evaluate finalists’ policies and privacy records against a strict set of guidelines to select the Most Trusted Company of 2005. Last year’s winner was Hewlett-Packard.

 

Ponemon Institute