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goalieskates
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join:2004-09-12
land of big

goalieskates to antdude

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Re: Mozilla Recognized as Most Trusted Internet Company--Privacy

What is the Ponemon Institute, and why would I care?

ashrc4
Premium Member
join:2009-02-06
australia

2 edits

ashrc4

Premium Member

said by goalieskates:

What is the Ponemon Institute, and why would I care?

Their PDF clearly answers that for you;

Ponemon Institute’s Most Trusted Companies for Privacy Study1 is an objective study that asks
consumers to name and rate organizations they believe are most committed to protecting the
privacy of their personal information. This annual study tracks consumers’
rankings of organizations that collect and manage their personal information.
More than 100,000 adult-aged consumers were asked to name up to five
companies they believe to be the most trusted for protecting the privacy of their
personal information. Consumer responses were gathered over a 15-week
period concluding in December 2012 and resulted in a final sample of 6,704
respondents who, on average, provided 5.4 discernible company ratings that
represent 25 different industries

We believe this research provides an unambiguous measure of how consumers perceive the
privacy and personal data protection practices of specific organizations. While perception is not a
perfect substitute for reality, in our experience this aggregated consumer view is an important
indicator.
We offer a cautionary note about the results of this year’s study. Based on previous consumer
studies, we have found that consumer perceptions about privacy can be influenced by a number
of extraneous factors. In fact, the ratings may not reflect at all the actual privacy practices of the
company and its efforts to protect the personal information of its customers and employees.
Further, what a company does in the area of privacy and data protection can be invisible to the
consumer until he or she experiences a problem and seeks redress or has a question about the
organization’s privacy and data protection practices that needs to be answered.
Some factors influencing consumers’ perceptions about a company’s privacy commitments may
include opinions about brand or product, personal experiences with a website, and how well the
company’s advertising messages resonate with them. In addition, favorable privacy trust
perceptions may result when a customer receives exceptional value from goods or services
received. We also believe media coverage of companies experiencing data breach or other
negative stories can significantly influence privacy trust perceptions.

»www.ponemon.org/local/up ··· INAL.pdf

You might care if you were a company given the results ahead of it's official release, maybe......Or it had a stronger overall weight on company's concerned with how/what privacy illusions the public had and then encouraged them to improve

goalieskates
Premium Member
join:2004-09-12
land of big

1 edit

goalieskates

Premium Member

said by ashrc4:

You might care if you were a company given the results ahead of it's official release, maybe......Or it had a stronger overall weight on company's concerned with how/what privacy illusions the public had and then encouraged them to improve

Or not. I think you're missing my point (although I was trying to be succinct).

There are some polls and pronouncements that have no meaning to real users, but are used as glorifications by the "winners." We've all seen them - browser x is "the fastest" or "the best", etc. Puff pieces that have no impact in the real world but they sure feel good.

There are also a lot of bogus groups that have wonderful "about us" statements on their web sites - they sound good, even the crooks. So their own mission statement isn't really an indicator of how respected they are in the IT community.

Non-tech example so we don't all get bogged down in a tech debate: The city where I live was recently touted by Reuters to be one of only three "major" cities to see economic recovery. The mayor promptly took credit and did a big pr tapdance in the media. The only problems with that are, that (a) it's not a major city by any stretch, and (b) you have to really twist the numbers to come up with any kind of recovery. Unemployment is still high, major jobs have been lost, and their replacements have been of the minimum wage variety. The article was a crock, or maybe a pr stunt, who knows. Other cities in the state that are both bigger and have better jobs somehow didn't "improve" the same way. Go figure.

So returning to this "achievement", Mozilla is acting like they won something because it makes them look good. If someone else had "won," they'd be the one crowing. But if the average person or company doesn't recognize and respect the source, it's no more real than my city's "recovery."

Blackbird
Built for Speed
Premium Member
join:2005-01-14
Fort Wayne, IN

1 recommendation

Blackbird

Premium Member

said by goalieskates:

... So returning to this "achievement", Mozilla is acting like they won something because it makes them look good. If someone else had "won," they'd be the one crowing. But if the average person or company doesn't recognize and respect the source, it's no more real than my city's "recovery."

I respectfully disagree. When it comes to Internet privacy and trust, the average person most likely won't recognize any source that awards a company's privacy and trust achievements. Not necessarily because such awards are flaky, undeserved, or not real, but simply because most folks have no idea of who is a knowledgeable-enough organization to make a legitimate award. Many professional or trade organizations are top-notch and legitimate, as are their awards, though they're not necessarily "well-known" to the average person. Frankly, I personally have little direct experience with the Ponemon Institute's competency or legitimacy, but I certainly can't dismiss them out-of-hand. From what I understand about them, they (and their RIM Council) appear to be recognized organizations framed around promoting and setting standards for privacy and ethics in all manner of information-rich industries and professions.

ashrc4
Premium Member
join:2009-02-06
australia

ashrc4 to goalieskates

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said by goalieskates:

said by ashrc4:

You might care if you were a company given the results ahead of it's official release, maybe......Or it had a stronger overall weight on company's concerned with how/what privacy illusions the public had and then encouraged them to improve


I think you're missing my point (although I was trying to be succinct).

No got it loud and clear.
The perceived privacy survey does not account for actual levels of privacy attained by comparison of company's and therefore people should not use it in some of the methods of comparison and champion one company over another with it.
said by ashrc4:

Or it had a stronger overall weight on company's concerned with how/what privacy illusions the public had and then encouraged them to improve

It still has some uses and could be a positive thing if one can vouch for it's accuracy.