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National Press Club Briefing Scheduled Wednesday at 10 a.m.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Results of the fourth annual, national “sweep” of privacy policies on commercial web sites will be released by the Progress & Freedom Foundation at a National Press Club briefing on Wednesday, March 27, at 10:00 a.m. EST, in the Holeman Lounge.
Designed to update the report issued last year by the Federal Trade Commission, the new survey – “Privacy Online: A Report on the Internet Practices and Policies of Commercial Websites” – measures the level of privacy protection at 100 of the most popular and a number of randomly-selected on-line destinations.
“The new ‘web sweeps’ survey measures the level of privacy protection at web sites visited by millions of Americans,” PFF President Jeffrey A. Eisenach said in announcing the study’s upcoming release. “Building upon the report issued by the Federal Trade Commission in May 2000, it will very likely have an important impact on the on-line privacy debate.”
The Foundation retained the accounting firm of Ernst & Young to perform data collection and auditing for the survey. The firm began surveying the web pages of the top 100 e-commerce sites, plus a random sample of approximately 300 smaller sites, in December. The FTC released similar ‘web sweeps’ surveys for 2000 and 1998. Georgetown University sponsored the study for 1999. The new study is part of an extensive program of research and education on privacy-related issues initiated by the Foundation two years ago.
The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It is a 501(c)(3) research & educational organization.
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