There are many factors that cause U.S. consumers from completing online purchases, and unwanted marketing is a big part of it. Though identity theft is the primary concern, spam and uninvited phone calls and mail are also big trust destroyers, especially for smaller sites.
A study conducted by Ponemon and TRUSTe showed that identity theft was the top privacy-related concern for American Web users. The numbers were released on March 28, 2007 and show that 74.8% of the 7,069 respondents indicated that identity theft worried them. This was down from 76.6% of respondents indicating the same concern last year.
Loss of civil liberties was second on the list with 56.0% of respondents listing it as a concern. Spam was third on the list with 51.4% of respondents indicating it as a major privacy worry.
Stolen assets (29.9%), telemarketing abuse (29.8%), unwanted junk mail (26.8%), stalking or spying activities (20.2%), and public embarrassment (19.8%) rounded out the list of the top eight privacy concerns for Web users in the U.S.
More than six out of 10 of the respondents said that they had been notified about a loss of their own private data in the past.
The study also showed that a data breach would most likely decrease a U.S. Web user’s trust in a company. Forty-eight percent of respondents showed this sentiment, while 44% agreed that irresponsible marketing would lead to the same negative effect.
Data inaccuracy (36%), an excess of legalese (23%), aggressive sharing (19%), and customer service mishaps (17%) were also on the list.
Gartner released numbers in November 2006 showing the huge effects that online security concerns have had that year. Estimates show that $913 million was lost that year because of the security concerns of online shoppers. Another $1 billion was lost to online users who refused to shop online because of security worries.
Source:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005107
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