Amex, eBay, IBM Most Trusted for Privacy in 2008

American Express (AXP), eBay (EBAY) and IBM were rated the top-three most trusted companies for privacy in 2008, at a time when identity theft is top-of-mind and consumers are more concerned than ever about losing control of their personal information, according to annual rankings from Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe.

Despite the current financial climate, Amex retained the top spot in the fifth-annual Most Trusted Companies for Privacy list. eBay, IBM, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Nationwide (NFS) and Charles Schwab (SCHW) all managed to retain their top 10 rankings as well.

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While the financial services sector slipped amid industry-wide woes, the technology sector showed marked improvement as eBay, Apple (AAPL), Yahoo (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT), and H-P (HPQ) all bettered previous rankings. Yahoo, Facebook, Apple, Verizon (VZ) and FedEx (FDX) all made into the top 20 for the first time.

“That we see many of the same names ranked among the top 20 companies year after year, strongly suggests that consumer perceptions are not superficial, but are in fact the result of diligent and successful execution of thoughtful privacy strategies,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, Ponemon Institute. “Consumers want to do business with brands they believe they can trust, and we believe our study is a strong indication of which brands have best earned that trust.”

Google (GOOG), which rounded out 2007’s top 10, did not even crack the top 20 this year.

Gap Widening between Importance, Trust

In addition to the ratings, the survey also finds that there is a significant gap developing between the importance privacy holds with consumers and the sense of control they feel they have over their personal information, specifically:

• The importance of privacy continues to rise: Nearly three-fourths (73%) of consumers said the protection of their personal privacy is “important” or “very important,” up from 69% in 2006.
• Consumers feel they are losing control of personal information: Only 45% feel they have control over their personal information, down from 56% percent in 2006.
• Identity theft is top-of-mind: Some 62% of consumers believe that identity theft most saliently affects their perceptions about a company’s privacy, while 53% named data breach notification and 42% cited annoying background chatter in a public venue. Only 18% of consumers cited social networking abuse as a factor.

About the research: The study asked 6,486 adult-aged US consumers which companies they thought were most trustworthy and which did the best job safeguarding personal information. A total of 706 companies were named by consumers, and 211 made the final list of most trusted companies.

Comments

[morleyadams:]

BEWARE OF EBAY & PAYPAL!

Whoever wrote this piece REALLY needs to do more homework. They can start by scouring ebay's own discussion boards for those who have been damaged by ebay's lack of controls! A couple of internet searches with just a few key words would bring up so many problems with ebay, the author would be ashamed at themselves for putting "trusted" and "ebay" in the same sentence together!

Not ONLY are there HUGE problems at ebay, but the payment system they own, Paypal, is overrun with glitches and outright manipulations (always in favor of ebay incs. interest).

PLEASE read the amended Paypal User Agreement! Paypal (owned by ebay) can now withhold users funds for 21-180 days at Paypal's "sole discretion"!!! Users are being caught in this trap at alarming rates! We can all thank ex-ebay CEO, Whitman and current CEO, Donahoe, for their "Disruptive Innovation" SCHEME against users for many such detrimental changes.

To read what the users are REALLY experiencing, search the internet for

"Ebay Stockholders and Sellers Calling For Immediate Termination of John Donohoe CEO Petition" (at petitiononline).

To learn about their own employees experiences with such POOR management, go to glassdoor and type in ebay.

2008 Dec 22 10:18 AM

[sukinu:]

Are you kidding me! It's nuts to write that eBay and PayPal are trusted sites for privacy. Between eBay and PayPal there are more fake emails, mismanaged funds, stolen funds and billing errors than one can believe. eBay and PayPal can't be trusted to manage a kid's savings account never mind the trust and privacy of millions of users. eBay and PayPal appear to have a concerted plan to STEAL funds from PayPal accounts through holding funds because their system can't detect fraudulent payments on the front end. Under Donahue's leadership, eBay has developed into a site riddled with security issues amongst other problems. To even allude that consumers are 'safe' on eBay's site is lunacy. eBay and PayPal need new leadership and their systems need a complete overhaul before they could be considered safe. Meanwhile every consumer should be aware that dealing with eBay is like dealing with a THIEF - they'll rob you every chance they get!!!

2008 Dec 22 10:49 AM

[OneWhoKnows:]

This is laughable. There were only 6,700 participants in order to gain acclaim? Jeeze. Let's see if we could get a full stadium of people, like maybe upwards of 75,000... and then those metrics might be a little more believable. American Express most trusted? C'mon, you've GOT to be kidding. They're just a bunch of PR reps and lawyers.

2008 Dec 22 11:10 AM

[NYM Arts:]

So, let me get this straight :
To get PAID for writing articles for Seeking Alpha,
All you have to do is Pol-Parrot the other guys,
Even though the Other guys are full of Crap,
You don't care What you feed the public.
Economy is Ebay's downfall......That's PURE B.S.
Ebay C.E.O. John Donahoe must be Removed for having MURDERED Ebay......That's PURE TRUTH.

2008 Dec 22 01:32 PM

[Wake-Up!:]

eBay #2 on Privacy??? Are you kidding??? I wonder what the definition of "PRIVACY" is these days??


Members of the eBay Inc. Corporate Family

eBay

eBay Inc., 2145 Hamilton Ave., San Jose, CA 95125, USA

eBay Europe S.á r.l., 22/24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg

eBay International AG, Helvetiastrasse 15/17, CH-3005 Bern, Switzerland

mobile.de & eBay Motors GmbH, Markplatz 1, 14532 Europarc Dreilinden, Germany

eBay Partner Network, Inc. 2145 Hamilton Ave., San Jose, CA 95125, USA

eBay International Advertising GmbH, Helvetiastrasse 15/17, CH-3005 Bern, Switzerland

PayPal

PayPal Inc., 2211 North First Street, San Jose, California 95131, USA

PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449, Luxembourg

PayPal Australia Pty Ltd., Locked Bag 10, Australia Square PO, Sydney NSW 1215

PayPal CA Limited, 2211 North First Street, San Jose, California 95131, USA

PayPal Pte. Ltd., 89 Neil Road, #03-01, Singapore 088849

Skype

Skype Software S.á r.l., 22/24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg

S.á r.l., 22/24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg

Classifieds

Kijiji US, Inc., 2145 Hamilton Ave., San Jose, CA 95125, USA

Kijiji International Limited, The Atrium, Old Nava Road, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, Ireland

Marktplaats B.V., Randweg 25, 8304 AS Emmeloord, The Netherlands

Gumtree.com Limited, Hotham House, 1 Heron Square, Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, TW9 1EJ, UK

Shopping.com

Shopping.com, Inc., 8000 Marina Blvd., Ste. 300, Brisbane, CA 94005, USA

Shopping Epinions International Ltd., The Atrium, Old Nava Road, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, Ireland

Other online services and platforms

StubHub, Inc., 199 Fremont Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA

Viva Group, Inc., 2425 Olympic Blvd., Suite 400E, Santa Monica, CA 90404, USA

StumbleUpon, Inc., 140 2nd Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA

ProStores Inc., 785 Orchard Drive, Suite 135, Folsom, CA 95630 USA

MicroPlace, Inc., 2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125, USA

Internet Auction Co., Ltd., Kyobo Tower 13, 14F, 1303-22 Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Korea 137-070

Via-Online GmbH, Kimplerstr. 296, 47807 Krefeld, Germany

Tradera AB, Gävlegatan 22, 113 30, Stockholm, Sweden

Some members of our corporate family, and some of our service providers, may be located in countries with laws that may not provide a level of data protection equivalent to the EU’s laws. Instead, we use a variety of methods to help ensure that these entities meet the required data protection standards around the world.

pages.ebay.com/help/po...

2008 Dec 22 02:02 PM

[Et tu, Brute!:]

You have GOT to be kidding me?! This shows abominable ignorance and uninformed poor research on the part of the author to a completely unacceptable level.

eBay and Paypal are two of the WORST entities for trust levels and Paypal is notorious for getting hacked.

I have been swamped with work and family situations but just could not let this pass!!!

Unbelievable. Makes all other articles written suspect, indeed!

2008 Dec 22 08:30 PM

[a. palmer jr.:]

I have been a small seller and buyer on ebay and personally have had no trouble at all with ebay or paypal, but the more I read about ebay in articles like this the more reluctant I am to deal with them.
The only problem I have with them currently is with them continually raising the fees. On most of my sales lately the only one making any money is ebay and the shipper. I know this is supposed to be about trust and privacy but I couldn't help but throw that in.

2008 Dec 23 11:04 AM

[mollytjm:]

the article is just a report on interesting research...not an endorsement of it. i'd put Apple above Ebay any day, but I'm an avid Ebay user and it's possible to be relatively safe using their site (and paypal) if you're careful about not answering emails by clicking on the links in them. Ebay and PayPal are worldwide and humungous and holding funds is crummy (insurance companies do it all the time). We're all nervous on the web, so ratings have to be relative. (no, i'm not employed by any of the above...i just think the ranting is unnecessary and unfair to the author of the article). i own Apple stock, period.

2008 Dec 23 11:15 AM

[o.c.d.colle...:]

Oh, that's what they call it? Privacy? ...
I call it getting rid of so many customers, that no one is interested in even shopping there any more. The corporate board of directors must be trying very hard to take this company apart and sell it to their own customer-seller, "Buy.com" as it looks, "Buy" has it's own seller's program that looks identical to ebay's. My thoughts are this: Ebay will be selling it's core to Buy.com, they are simply streamlining the site to better fit "Buy's" online presence.

There is no way ebay can ever survive the direction it is going forward in, NOW.It is headed for a very big crash after the holiday season. We old 10 yr sellers have been around watching this company a lot longer than you investors and financial gurus. You can listen to all the chat going on in the discussion boards under the"Soap-box" board, ebay news, current events, and Info. Although the majority of the posts are article-related, the posters are long time members watching the site collapse under Mr Donahoe's direction.

Just recently, many of the boards have had their comments and posts removed, with temporary suspensions, because they are aware that stockholders ave been directed to this thread, and many others like it.In fact, this particular thread was buried in the "soapbox" discussin board after being in the seller central board for almost a year.
Ebay is trying to stifle the truth, but it's out there!

2008 Dec 25 01:25 PM

[thanatosA:]

eBay safe? eBay/PayPal trusted? Surely this is a paid infomercial - I'm pretty sure eBay/PayPal would appear at the other end of the scale as one of the least trustworthy or least safe of all online sites. Sites like BidMate.com.au gets thousands of it's members from those who can no longer put their trust in eBay/PayPal.

2008 Dec 29 04:23 AM

[valoppe:]

what a joke,ebay/paypal secure.I recently sold an item to a chinese scammer.what they do is buy the item, insure it, and when it arrives immediately put in a claim to paypal. paypal without any investigation, pays this buyer and he cashes in on the insured item as well. I told paypal that the item was insured and wait for the results.no way they paid the scammer and left me with a minus balance. week later I received a package of stones in place of the clock I sent. thank god I knew enough, after reading negative blogs, to not keep a balance over 1.00.there is so much profit volume involved they don't care about security or scammers, its about the money...

Jan 04 11:30 PM