Enonymous.com says Privacy Site Ratings are Justified
Enonymous.com founder and director of privacy Timothy J. Kane said that the criticisms against his firm’s Web ratings are unfair.
Enonymous.com, San Diego, announced ratings for 30,000 Web sites’ privacy policies last week. Sites were given one to four stars–with four representing sites with the best privacy policies. But enonymous.com’s methodology was questioned when privacy advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington DC only received a rating of two stars.
“The rating is more a reflection on the inadequacy of this survey than our privacy policy,” EPIC’s general counsel David Sobel, told DIRECT Newsline last week.
Kane said that to receive four stars a site “must never share data and will never contact an individual unless they opted in for such contact.”
EPIC.org sends out an e-mail newsletter to people who choose to receive it. But, the nonprofit also sends out an annual fundraising appeal to those newsletter recipients. Although EPIC mentions the that the mailing list will also be used for donation appeals, it does not give those recipients a chance to choose whether or not to receive the appeal. “It would get four stars if, when they registered for the newsletter, people had a chance to opt in or opt out for the donation appeal,” Kane said.
Enonymous provides a free software application visitors may download that works with a Web browser to let people see how the company rates a Web site’s privacy policy. It also lets them shop anonymously while still being able to take advantage of any discounts or coupons the site offers regular customers. Enonymous’ site privacyratings.org allows visitors to view Web sites’ ratings.
