Study: Americans send USPS a love letter on privacy

Computerworld - For the second year in a row, Americans have rated the U.S. Postal Service as the No. 1 government agency they trust to protect their privacy, according to a study by Ponemon Institute LLC. Not only did the Postal Service retain the top spot, but its customer satisfaction and trust scores were even better than last year, according to the institute’s 2006 Privacy Trust Study of the U.S. Government released yesterday.

The study, sponsored by San Francisco-based Vontu Inc., is designed to measure the level of confidence Americans have in 57 federal agencies that routinely collect and use personal information. the study is available online (registration required).

“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,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute and the study’s author. “We were very deliberate in what we asked and how we presented the information.”

Ponemon is also a columnist for Computerworld.

The Postal Service achieved the top spot with a privacy trust score of 82 out of a possible 100, according to the study. It also is one of the few federal agencies that improved its scores from a year ago. The rating for the Postal Service increased 4 points from a year ago even as privacy scores for all agencies declined from 52 to 47, according to the 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 in the report. “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.”

The Federal Trade Commission received the second-highest score, a 78, which is up 8 points from the 2004 study, followed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at 74%.

“It goes to show that an organization that may not be loved can still earn a good trust score,” Ponemon said, referring to the IRS. “But that is somewhat of an anomaly because in most cases, the organizations that get high marks are the ones that are liked, and the ones that get low marks are the ones that aren’t liked very much. The IRS is not liked very much ... but they certainly are respected for their privacy practices.”

The agencies with the lowest scores are the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with a score of 17, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) with a score of 19, Ponemon said.