Online privacy: your stories

Privacy is like freedom: you don’t appreciate it until you don’t have it. That’s how Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, describes the problems created by online privacy. An invasion of privacy can be as serious as having your identity stolen. Or it could be more subtle: Plenty of people connect to the Internet, visit a Web page or receive an e-mail and wonder, “How did they know my name?”

NAMES AND E-MAIL ADDRESSES are big business, so often “they” get your name by buying it.

But sometimes, you volunteer it, and “they” won’t give it back. According to a recent study by e-commerce research firm SimplyQuick.com, four top e-commerce sites wouldn’t stop sending e-mail to users even after they asked. As a test, SimplyQuick subscribed to newsletters at 41 top e-commerce sites, then canceled one month later. Drugstore.com, Freeshop.com, Staples.com and Victoria’s Secret all continued to send the e-mail, ever after cancellation.

“The odd extra e-mail might seem no big deal, but the handling of unsubscriptions may be the tip of the iceberg for how sites actually handle personal information,” said Dr Simon Smelt, CEO of SimplyQuick.com. “Four leading sites seem to lack the competence, technical quality or respect in handling personal information that the shopper is entitled to expect from major sites.”

Most people have a fuzzy idea that they don’t like sharing personal information while they’re online, but they do it anyway. Eventually, that leads at least to unsolicted e-mail, and maybe worse. What’s your experience with online privacy?