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Most don't know personal data can be sold

Pizza delivery, rebates among the transactions providing info
Deborah Gage, San Francisco Chronicle
Published 4:00 am, Thursday, May 15, 2008
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With help from the university's Survey Research Center, the clinic asked approximately 1,000 people about nine common transactions - ordering a pizza, for instance, or donating to charity - and what they thought happened to their personal information as a result. Responses were weighted to reflect a representative sample of Californians.

In only two categories - subscribing to newspapers or magazines and entering a sweepstakes - did more than 50 percent of respondents understand that when they do these things, they're handing over their information to be sold.

Otherwise, many got it wrong. A majority of people didn't realize that when they order a pizza, donate to charities, register a product for a warranty, collect a product rebate, give their phone numbers to store clerks or order something from a catalog, they're allowing their information to be sold and shared among companies.

Pizza delivery information also is used by private investigators and governments to track people, the report points out.

A majority of people also don't know that grocery stores in California are prohibited from selling personal information they collect from loyalty club cards.

People who shop online did better on the survey than those who don't. Whether online shoppers are more accustomed to reading privacy policies or are just more suspicious, Hoofnagle said he didn't know.

The survey also divided people into three groups depending on how much they care about privacy - the unconcerned, pragmatists (people who like voluntary privacy standards) and fundamentalists (people who want strong privacy laws). This scheme was developed by Alan Westin, a professor at Columbia University law school.

Fundamentalists - 21 percent of the respondents - did better on the survey than the other two groups. Again, they could be either more knowledgeable about privacy or more suspicious.

One solution to the privacy problem is to require that people opt in, or give explicit permission for organizations to sell or share their information. But businesses have a hard time getting people to do that, Hoofnagle said.

Another idea is to create a national privacy roster modeled on the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call list, where people submit phone numbers that businesses and organizations can't call. No such legislation is in the works, however.

The law clinic expects to issue a similar survey on online privacy in the next few weeks.

Fair game

Companies can sell or share your personal information unless they restrict themselves with a privacy policy or are regulated by law. Information can be gathered from:

Pizza delivery companies

Charitable donations

Product warranty registrations

Product rebates

Newspaper and magazine subscriptions

Sweepstakes entries

Catalog orders

Phone numbers that you give to cashiers

What can't be sold: Personal information from grocery club cards

Source: Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic, UC Berkeley.