Dell Computer Corporation, Austin, TX, announced yesterday it has entered a partnership with the advocacy group National Consumers League to educate online consumers about privacy and security on the Internet.
“We thought it was a logical partnership because you have one of the most respected consumer advocacy groups in the U.S. and one of the world’s leaders in Internet commerce getting together to educate consumers on ways that they can take further steps to protect their privacy and security,” said John Hamlin, vice president and general manager of Dell’s U.S. consumer division.
Among the first steps taken by the duo, was the commissioning of a consumer privacy survey by Harris Interactive.
The results, which were released yesterday, indicated that 88 percent of the consumers polled were concerned about the loss of personal privacy, which mirrored or surpassed the percentages who were concerned about issues such as healthcare and taxes.
Also, 57 percent of respondents claimed not to have purchased anything online in the past year due to privacy and security fears.
The survey was conducted online among 2,180 American adults age 18 and over on August 30-31.
“I don’t think we were particularly surprised because it’s logical that people have online privacy and security concerns but I what I did think was interesting is that people actually rank those concerns up there with things like healthcare and taxes as a worries they have,” said Hamlin.
Aside from the survey, Dell and NCL plan to educate consumers about privacy and security in three primary ways: A brochure on the essentials of what consumers should know, a Web site with detailed information and a tutorial, and through including information in Dell’s consumer PC shipments.
