How good is your privacy policy? InformationWeek and Planet IT recently asked four experts to critique the privacy policies of ten Web sites. We discovered that online privacy polices are still evolving. Many sites such as Realtor.com, eduNetwork.com, and Tiffany.com didn't have policies that we could find on their site. (Although it was easy to find out how to purchase customer info from EduNetwork.) Several sites, including IBM, United Airlines, and even our own CMP are in the midst of revising their policies. We analyzed their current policies, asked the companies to provide feedback on the critiques, and the goals of their policies. After you've read the reviews, log on to a roundtable discussion.

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And from our sister publications:

InternetWeek Spec A First Step For Privacy (7/10/00) TechWeb Web Group Debuts Privacy Platform Prototype (6/21/00) TechWeb Online Privacy Specification Needs Tweaking (7/7/00) TechWeb Lawmakers Seek Balance In Privacy Legislation (6/15/00) CRN FTC pushes Web privacy legislation (5/29/00)

Read the full review By Andrew Shen Policy Analyst Electronic Privacy Information Center	"This is a better than average privacy policy. Clearer and shorter than most."
"BestBuy.com should tell us how the info they share is kept private."	Read the full review By Gary Clayton President of the Privacy Council
Read the full review By Gary Clayton President of the Privacy Council	"Dell's site disproves the theory that shorter is necessarily better."
"EBay outlines the information collected and who has access to it."	Read the full review By Jonathan Zuck President of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT).
Read the full review By Jonathan Zuck President of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT).	"ECircles is pretty specific about what information is collected, how it's collected, and how it might be used."
"IBM's privacy notice is short, concise and easily understandable."	Read the full review By Gary Clayton President of the Privacy Council
Read the full review By Jonathan Zuck President of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT).	"Much of the policy tries to sell users on sharing their information."
"Southwest's policy is one of the more difficult policies to find."	Read the full review By James Grady Associate Analyst with Giga Information Group
Read the full review By James Grady Associate Analyst with Giga Information Group	"United places a privacy link on every single page."
"Much of the privacy policy is vague."	Read the full review By Andrew Shen Policy Analyst Electronic Privacy Information Center

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