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Poll: Consumers Less Trustful Of Internet

Octgober 26, 2005
Web users are demanding more of Web sites while becoming less trustful of them, and adjusting their behavior in response to what they see as real threats online, according to a new national survey.

The survey by Consumer Reports Web Watch says almost a third of people questioned say they are cutting back their Web use.

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, surveying a nationally 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."

Identity Theft & Web Behavior

For all online users, the report found that concern about identity theft is substantial, and is changing consumer behavior in major ways. Four in five Internet users (80 percent) are at least somewhat concerned someone could steal their identity from personal information on the Internet.

Trust & Credibility Online

WebWatch used results from its 2002 poll to create a set of guidelines for all Web sites 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 Web sites 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 Web site over another than they did in 2002.

• 88 percent say keeping personal information safe and secure is very important for a Web site they visit.

• Being able to trust the information on a site is not far behind, with 81 percent saying it is very important, little changed from 80 percent in the 2002 survey.

• 76 percent say it is very important to be able to easily identify the sources of information on the site, up 8 percentage points.

• 73 percent rate knowing a site is updated frequently with new information as very important, also up 8 percentage points.

• More surprisingly, 48 percent say knowing who owns a Web site is very important, up 16 points.

"We're gratified that over time, our guidelines for improving Web site credibility, and the general concerns of U.S. Internet users, remain connected," said Beau Brendler, director of Consumer Reports WebWatch.

"The types of qualities users expect from credible Web sites are the same qualities found in WebWatch's guidelines."

WebWatch has published a unique body of research on topics of concern to consumers, including credibility issues among health information Web sites, travel sites, search engines and others. For this 2005 report, WebWatch surveyed U.S. Internet 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.

Some major findings in these sectors:

News & Information Sites

• The percentage of adults saying they get most of their news from the Internet has doubled, going from 5 percent in 2002 to 11 percent in this poll.

• 69 percent of users say a clear distinction between advertising and news content is very important, up 10 percentage points since the 2002 survey.

• Three in ten (31 percent) say it is very important that the news site reveal the financial relationships the site has with other sites or businesses, up nine percentage points from 22 percent in 2002.

• One quarter of users (27 percent) 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.

• Fifty-seven percent distrust what blogs report, with 21 percent saying they are never, or almost never, accurate.

• Nearly half the poll's respondents (47 percent) say they have come across manipulated digital images on the Web. However, nearly two-thirds (67 percent) 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.

Children's Sites

• Almost all Internet users see adults' seeking out children in chat rooms as a problem, with 86 percent saying it is a major problem.

• Three in five online users (61 percent) say violent online games are a major problem.

• More than four in five (82 percent) say the ease of viewing sexually explicit materials online is a major problem.

• The majority (56 percent) 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.

Financial Services Sites

• Six in 10 users (61 percent) say they trust auction sites a lot (24 percent) or somewhat (37 percent).

• Banking sites are trusted by 68 percent of online users.

• 55 percent trust sites where one can set up automatic payment of bills.

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