Internet Users (Still) Ignorant

A sidebar in a recent issue of CIO Magazine reports some alarming statistics on the general population's understanding of data privacy. The survey was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center and includes the responses from 1,500 adult US Internet users.

75% of respondents wrongly believe that the existence of a privacy policy on a web site means that a user's information will not be shared with third parties.

68% can't name any of the three credit reporting agencies.

49% can't identify e-mail-based phishing attempts.

That last number is the scariest of the lot. I have anecdotal evidence that it's true too. I was involved in a project that sent out e-bills. The recipient received an official looking e-mail with a request to go to a site and pay a bill online. Even though the e-bill mentioned one company's name, but the URL didn't match in any way, people still clicked through. Lucky for them even though this e-mail looked like a phishing attempt, it was actually legitimate.