TRUSTe research: 56% of small businesses’ web sites don’t have privacy policy

The recent survey, conducted by TRUSTe, found that 56% of small business owners having web sites admitted they don’t have privacy policy on their web site. One third of them cut and pasted their privacy policy from somewhere else and one quarter wrote it by themselves. However that can lead to brand risk that may deflect from local laws.

The research also shows that 21% of small businesses don't even know if they have encrypted pages on their web site. 30% don't know if they were PCI compliant. The fact of consumer's information undergoing stealing or abusing is a result of knowledge lack that leads to privacy lapses and security breaches. Thus there is the necessity of working out steps to ensure the Web site to ensure small businesses they conduct business safely and let customers have the best, safest experience possible.

The survey also revealed that 79% of small businesses aware of trustmarks do not display any seal of approval on their web site, even though half consider a trustmark such as TRUSTe important to identifying trustworthy sites. The National Small Business Association said that small businesses make up 99.7% of all U.S. companies, so an enormous need for online trust and safety on the part of both the small business and the consumer is obvious. 

Below there are some highlights according to the TRUSTe research: 

• 36% of consumers claimed they would not use their credit or debit card to make a purchase with a Web merchant they didn't know. 

• While merchants anecdotally report that approximately 20-30% of online shopping carts are abandoned, research conducted by Marketing Sherpa actually found a 58% average abandonment rate.

• 49% of consumers abandon online shopping carts due to fear of identity theft; 53% worry about sharing personal information.