Privacy policies of the largest privately held companies: a review and analysis of the forbes private 50

Abstract

This study reviews the Internet privacy policies of the 50 largest privately held companies in the US as identified by Forbes magazine. The study builds on work of prior researchers who analyzed popular and random e-commerce websites. In this study, the websites of privately held firms were reviewed and analyzed for the inclusion of the Federal Trade Commission's Fair Information Practices as well as a series of other consumer-centered factors. A comparison was also made between the policies of largest US publicly traded companies and the privately held companies. Overall the study finds that privately held companies do not demonstrate consistency in following Fair Information Practices or consumer-centered Internet policies. Also, the 50 largest privately held companies are generally less likely to publicly reveal their policies relative to Fair Information Practices or consumer-centered policies than the 50 largest publicly held companies. This is due to a large extent to lack of any privacy policies for many privately held companies. If only those companies with privacy policies are analyzed, two factors show significant differences between public and private company privacy policies.