Privacy Test

In the previous test there where three sites with a privacy policy. In this extra test, I will take a look at the privacy policies of the test websites. In Internet Explorer 8 there is an option to retrieve the privacy policy of a specific site. When I look for the privacy policy, I got these results:

1. bol.com - No privacy policy found.
2. funda.nl - Privacy policy available!
3. helenahoeve.nl - Privacy policy available!
4. nu.nl - Privacy policy available!
5. philips.nl - Syntax error in privacy policy, information could not be displayed.
6. postbus51.nl - No privacy policy found.
7. rabobank.nl - Syntax error in privacy policy, information could not be displayed.
8. vrom.nl - No privacy policy found.
9. wehkamp.nl - No privacy policy found.
10. wnf.nl - No privacy policy found.

Five sites, including the helenahoeve.nl use P3P for describing the privacy policy. Philips.nl and rabobank.nl have syntax errors in their P3P file. The ranking so far is:

1. funda.nl, helenahoeve.nl, nu.nl
2. philips.nl, rabobank.nl
3. bol.com, postbus51.nl, vrom.nl, wehkamp.nl, wnf.nl

These are strange results, because I think all these sites does have a privacy policy. When you take a look at the homepages, I conclude that:

1. bol.com - Link to policy available at the homepage
2. funda.nl - Link to policy available 
3. helenahoeve.nl - Link to policy available at the homepage
4. nu.nl  - No link to a privacy policy available
5. philips.nl - Link to policy available at the homepage
6. postbus51.nl  - No link to a privacy policy available
7. rabobank.nl - Link to policy available at the homepage
8. vrom.nl  - No link to a privacy policy available
9. wehkamp.nl - Link to policy available at the homepage
10. wnf.nl  - No link to a privacy policy available

There are six sites with a privacy policy. These sites are: bol.com, funda.nl, helenahoeve.nl, philips.nl, rabobank.nl and wehkamp.nl

A visible privacy policy is probably more important than a P3P policy. So I will rank the sites in the following order:

1. funda.nl, helenahoeve.nl
2. philips.nl, rabobank.nl
3. bol.com, wehkamp.nl
4. nu.nl
5. postbus51, vrom.nl wnf.nl