Privacy study shows Google

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Using trackers called “web bugs,” thirdc parties collect user data from many populafWeb sites, and sites often allowa this, even though theier privacy policies say they don’ share user data with others. “Webg bugs from Google and its subsidiaries were found on 92 of the top 100 Web sitexs and 88 percent of theapproximately 400,000 uniqu domains examined in the the authors found. Sites with the most web bugs were forblogging — blogspot and typepad were No. 1 and No. 2 on the list in and blogger was No. 4. Google itselcf was No. 3. Ashkan Soltani, Travis Pinnick and Joshuwa Gomez ofthe university’s information schoool wrote the study, published Monday.
They analyzed privacy policies poste d on Web sites and found loopholes used by many site operatorse to allow third parties to collect data on whoviews pages. They also for example, that though Web sites might reassure visitorsthat “we don’t share data with third parties,” those third parties don’t include a company’s affiliates — Google GOOG), for example, has 137 subsidiary “The law on affiliate sharing generally is more permissive” than that on sharinhg user data with third partuy companies, the report said.
Companies controllinyg the top 50 busiesr Web sites had an average of 297affiliatex each, meaning they could share user data with a lot of othetr companies. Popular site , for example, is ownexd by New York’s (Nasdaq: NWS), whic h has more than 1,500 (NYSE: BAC) in Charlotte, N.C. has more than 2,309 subsidiaries. “Users do not know and cannot learn the full rangw of affiliates with which websites maysharde information,” the report said.
Though many Internetg users are familiarwith “cookies” used to studyh their surfing habits, they are less familiar with so-calledr “web bugs,” which can’t be cleare d out of a web browseer because they are part of a Web site’ s HTML code. Because the web bugs are created directlt bythird parties, their use doesn’t strictly count as of data by the Web site’z owner, though users concerned about privacy mighgt be unimpressed by this technicality. “We believer that this practicecontravenes expectations; it makes little sense to disclaim formal information but allow functionally equivalent tracking with third the report said.
Who's in charge of privacy Although surveys of Internet users show peopleare “vert concerned about privacy and do not want websites to collect and sharer their personal information without permission,” siftingy through privacy policies is not practical. It would take 200 hours a year for a typical perso to read the privacy policies of all the Web sitedsthey visit, for example. Thus “users have no practical way of knowing with whom their data will be On thepolicy front, the reportg finds “no one knows who is in chargee of protecting privacy” in the United People can complain to the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies, but even the FTC’ s “principles for behavioral tracking make no mention of any enforcement or A low number of complaints to various agencies means consumers don’r really know where to complain, the reporf said.
The FTC looksw at online privacy more in terms of doneto consumers, the report said, rather than also in termz of control over personal information, whicnh is what most users care The report makes several suggestions for improvement, including more aggressiv e action by the FTC to protect online privacy. It also callsd for clearer privacy policiez onWeb sites, written so that average users can understanx them. ’s (Nasdaq: ADBE) privacy for example, when analyzed for readability, was written at an equivalent grades levelof 17.29. The average privacy policy in the studyu was written at a grade level of The full study can befoune .