• by August 1, 2000

Market Explorers recently conducted a survey with 200 adults in British Columbia that revealed only one-quarter (26.5%) of BC adults believe there are adequate laws in place to protect the personal information they might provide to private industry over the Internet.

So much for the holy grail of profiling: only one-third (31%) of BC adults have ever provided personal information to a company or organization's site.

Researchers found that the comfort level with providing personal information declines with age: 47% of those between 18 to 34, 31% of those 35 to 49, and only 21% of those 50+. Among those providing information, a sizeable proportion, 37%, claimed that they have, at one point or another, supplied inaccurate information to a company or organization's website in order to protect their privacy.

Surprisingly, those younger residents with the highest comfort of providing information on the web are also the ones most likely to provide inaccurate information.

"The above correlation," said Jordan Haythornthwaite, Market Explorers' Internet and e-commerce specialist, "is most likely a function of the younger people surfing a larger spectrum of websites including adult or personals, sites they would not necessarily trust with personal information. Older residents, who are more recent Internet users, have not necessarily built their trust with the medium. But, once they trust the medium, and given the nature of the sites they frequent, they are more comfortable providing accurate information."

The survey was conducted by telephone with a random sample of 200 adults in BC, 18 years or older, with gender, age and region proportions in line with population. The research was conducted between July 20 to 25, 2000. This sample size provides results that are accurate within +/- 6.9%, 19 times out of 20.