Internet users are demanding more of websites while becoming less trustful of them, and adjusting their behaviour in response to what they see as real threats online. Almost a third say they are cutting back their Web use, says a survey report by Consumer Reports WebWatch.
The report, Leap of Faith: Using the Internet Despite the Dangers, is based on a poll conducted for WebWatch by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI), surveying a representative sample of 1,501 Web users in the United States age 18 and over. The report revisits a similar national poll WebWatch and PSRAI conducted and released in 2002, A Matter of Trust: What Users Want From Web Sites.
The report found that concern about identity theft was substantial, and was changing consumer behaviour in major ways. Four in five Internet users (80 per cent) are at least somewhat concerned someone could steal their identity from personal information on the Internet. Nearly nine out of ten users (86 per cent) have made at least one change in their behaviour because of this fear:
- 30 per cent say they have reduced their overall use of the Internet.
- A majority of Internet users (53 per cent) say they have stopped giving out personal information on the Internet.
- 25 per cent say they have stopped buying things online.
- 54 per cent of those who shop online report they have become more likely to read a site’s privacy policy or user agreement before buying.
- 29 per cent of those who shop online say they have cut back on how often they buy on the Internet.
WebWatch used results from its 2002 poll to create a set of guidelines for all websites to help improve credibility. In this 2005 report, WebWatch asked the same questions about attributes of credibility, and found users have developed high expectations for websites over a relatively short period of time. In the current survey, more users say they are placing substantial importance on specific reasons for choosing one website over another than they did in 2002.
- 88 per cent say keeping personal information safe and secure is very important for a website they visit.
- Being able to trust the information on a site is not far behind, with 81 per cent saying it is very important, little changed from 80 per cent in the 2002 survey.
- 76 per cent say it is very important to be able to easily identify the sources of information on the site, up 8 percentage points.
- 73 per cent rate knowing a site is updated frequently with new information as very important, also up 8 percentage points.
- More surprisingly, 48 per cent say knowing who owns a website is very important, up 16 points.
"We're gratified that over time, our guidelines for improving website credibility, and the general concerns of US Internet users, remain connected," said Beau Brendler, director of Consumer Reports WebWatch. "The types of qualities users expect from credible websites are the same qualities found in WebWatch’s guidelines."
WebWatch surveyed users about other sectors of the Web in which WebWatch is conducting ongoing research: news and information sites and blogs; financial sites; and sites for children and teenagers.
There were other findings too. The percentage of adults saying they get most of their news from the Internet has doubled, going from 5 per cent in 2002 to 11 per cent in this poll. Sixtynine per cent say a clear distinction between advertising and news content is very important, up 10 percentage points since the 2002 survey. Three in 10 (31 per cent) say it is very important that the news site reveals the financial relationships the site has with other sites or businesses, up nine percentage points from 22 per cent in 2002.
One quarter of users (27 per cent) say they have visited a blog in the past several months, but just one in eight users (12 percent) say they believe the information on blogs is accurate at least most of the time. Fiftyseven per cent distrust what blogs report, with 21 per cent saying they are never, or almost never, accurate.
Nearly half the poll’s respondents (47 per cent) say they have come across manipulated digital images on the Web. However, nearly two-thirds (67 per cent) said they trust online news sites a lot or somewhat to use photographs that are genuine and have not been altered to change their meaning.
Almost all users see adults’ seeking out children in chat rooms as a problem, with 86 per cent saying it is a major problem. Three in five online users (61 per cent) say violent online games are a major problem. More than four in five (82 per cent) say the ease of viewing sexually explicit materials online is a major problem. The majority (56 per cent) of users still has not heard of the practice among search engines of accepting fees to display certain Web sites more prominently on results pages when certain key words or phrases are typed in.
Not all the poll responses in the report are bad news for the Web. Six in 10 users (61 per cent) say they trust auction sites a lot (24 per cent) or somewhat (37 per cent). Banking sites are trusted by 68 per cent of online users. Fiftyfive per cent trust sites where one can set up automatic payment of bills.
