Ponemon Institute LLC published its "2006 Privacy Trust Study of the United States Government" last week. The study sought to understand the level of confidence Americans have in the many government agencies that routinely collect and use the public's personal information.
The Postal Service retained the top spot with a privacy trust score of 82 percent. It also is one of the few federal agencies able to increase its customer satisfaction and trust scores. While scores declined an average of 5 percent, the rating for the Postal Service increased by 4 percentage points, the study shows. The overall average trust score was 47 percent.
"No government agency touches the public in the way the United States Postal Service does. No other government agency has the one-to-one, personalized service with its customers, six days a week, 52 weeks a year,"said Delores Killette, Vice President and Consumer Advocate. "Americans trust the Postal Service to be discreet in handling their mail and to safeguard their personal information."
The Federal Trade Commission received the second highest score at 78 percent, followed by the IRS at 74 percent.
Dr. Larry Ponemon, Chairman and Founder of Ponemon Institute, said one of the most important questions asked of the more than 6,000 respondents focused on whether the public believed the privacy commitments of the federal government.
"We wanted to understand if people thought that these various agencies were actively protecting their privacy and controlling access to the information that was being provided," Ponemon said. "We were very deliberate in what we asked and how we presented the information."
The Privacy Trust Study identified 10 factors to determine individual agency scores. The factors raged from a sense of security when providing personal information and human contact to secure web sites and access to personal information.
Other findings include:
- 69 percent cited "loss of civil liberties and privacy rights" as their number one concern, up 5 percent from 2004.
- 63 percent said "surveillance into personal life" as ranking unchanged as second concern in the 2004 survey.
- 47 percent said the "monitoring of e-mail and Web activities" was third most important.
- "Theft of your identity" was cited by 23 percent, up from 19 percent in the 2004 study.
"The top three factors for creating trust, according to our study, are a sense of security when providing personal information, limited collection of personal information and one-to-one personal contact," Ponemon said. "Respondents seem to agree that in their daily lives, the Postal Service delivers on all three and accordingly continues to earn and keep their trust and confidence."
