When you sign up for something on the web or register a product you’ve purchased, there’s usually a small link called “privacy policy” or something like that. Have you ever read that small novel on the resulting page? Me neither, but for all we know they could be saying, “We’re gonna sell your personal information to the highest bidder!” Check out this article from Techweb.com below…

Here’s the scoopage:

Major Companies Score Poorly In Handling Personal Data

More than 7 in 10 major companies analyzed by a research and consulting firm scored poorly for their policies toward re-using personal data for marketing purposes.

The Customer Respect Group analyzed 464 major corporate Web sites to determine online privacy trends. Among the findings in its annual Privacy Report is the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is the worst in terms of online privacy, scoring 5.4 out of a possible 10.

The travel and airlines industry performed the best with an average rating of 7.4, the CRG said Friday.

Overall, 72 percent of the companies analyzed scored “poor” for their policies toward re-using personal data for marketing purposes, the CRG said. Only 42 percent scored “good” for their policies toward sharing of personal data, and only 23 percent had policies that were considered “good” for allowing users to destroy their own information stored on corporate databases.

The top 10 companies rated for privacy were Intel, Expedia, E-Loan, Verizon Wireless, Estee Lauder Companies, Marriott International, Con-Way Transportation Services, IBM and Medco Health Solutions.

My advice? Get yourself a crap Yahoo, Gmail or other free web email account and use that for all things like eBay, Amazon, registration for item purchases and even for correspondence with your health care provider. That way if Spam ever gets out of hand you can stop using the address and get another one. Keep it around in case you ever need to get in there for something. Then it’s a matter of changing your email accounts wherever you’re using them online.

It might be smart to keep a running tab or list of what emails you use for what so when you need to change addresses, you have a list to go down. Ah, the things we do for less spam.

Of course, if you have a domain name of your own, you can just make yourself a few more addresses. I had to change mine from tbone at Starwarz.com because after years of using it, 8 out of every 10 emails were spam and junk. Now I don’t use my new account for anything but my website affairs and I have a contact form up instead of displaying my email address on the page.

Remember: displaying a live e-mail link on your page will also get you spammed! Web “spiders” are out there scouring the web for valid emails to sell or use. Don’t display your email if you can avoid it.

Suggestion: On your website type out the name with AT in between like this —> t-bone at blogwarz.com. People should be able to put 2 and 2 together. If not, use a handy contact form from a good site like HotScripts.com.

Oh - and while we’re on the subject of Internet Security - here’s another sobering article about Spyware: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1850937,00.asp

Be careful out there!