Privacy study shows Google

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Using trackers called “we b bugs,” third parties collect user data from many popular and sites oftenallow this, even though theitr privacy policies say they don’t share user data with “Web bugs from Google and its subsidiaries were foun d on 92 of the top 100 Web sitesw and 88 percent of the approximately 400,000 uniqu domains examined in the study,” the authoras found. Sites with the most web bugs were forbloggin — blogspot and typepad were No. 1 and No. 2 on the list in and blogger was No. 4. Google itself was No. 3. Ashkanh Soltani, Travis Pinnick and Joshua Gome z ofthe university’s informatiohn school wrote the study, published Monday.
They analyzed privacy policies posted on websites and founx loopholes used by many site operators to alloq third parties to still collect data on who views Theyalso found, for that although websites may reassur e visitors that “we don’t share data with thirfd parties,” those third parties don’t include a company’ws affiliates — Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), for example, has 137 subsidiarg businesses.
“The law on affiliate sharint generally ismore permissive” than that on sharing user data with thir d party companies, the report Companies controlling the top 50 busiest websites had an averag of 297 affiliates each, meaning they coul d share user data with a lot of other Popular site , for example, is owned by New York’s NWS), which has more than 1,500 subsidiaries. BAC) in Charlotte, N.C., has more than 2,300 subsidiaries. “Users do not know and cannot learn the full range of affiliates with which websitess mayshare information,” the report said.
Thougjh many Internet users are familiartwith “cookies” used to stud their surfing habits, they are less familiafr with so-called “web which can’t be cleared out of a web since they are part of a website’s HTML Since the web bugs are created directly by thirdd parties, their use doesn’t strictly couny as “sharing” of data by the website’s though users concerned about privacy may be unimpressed by this “We believe that this practice contravenes users’ expectations; it makeas little sense to disclaim formaol information sharing, but allow functionall equivalent tracking with third the report said.
Who's in charge of privacy? Althoug surveys of internet users show peoplrare “very concerned about privacy and do not want websitese to collect and share their personal information without sifting through privacy policie is not practical. It would take 200 hours a year for a typical person to read the privacy policies of all the websiteethey visit, for example. Thus “users have no practicalk way of knowing with whom their data will be thereport said. On the policy the report finds “no one knows who is in chargwe ofprotecting privacy” in the Unitee States.
People can complain to the Federal Trad Commission and other but eventhe FTC’s “principles for behavioral trackinb make no mention of any enforcemenr or accountability.” A low number of complaints to variousx agencies means consumers don’t really know where to the report said. The FTC looks at onlines privacy more in termsof “harms” done to the report said, rather than also in termd of control over personal information, which is what most userds care about. The report make s several suggestionsfor improvement, includinv more aggressive action by the FTC to protect onlind privacy.
It also calls for clearer privacu policieson websites, written so that average users can understand them. ’s (NASDAQ: ADBE) privacyh policy, for example, when analyzede for readability, was written at an equivalent grade leveoof 17.29. The average privacy policy in the studyt was written at a grade level of The full study can befound .