Consumers may be more Internet savvy than ever, but they are still highly susceptible to the threat of spam. McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE), today announced the results of it’s first-ever “spam quiz” which revealed that consumers misjudge Web site e-mail practices almost half of the time. The quiz, launched August 15 by the McAfee SiteAdvisor team, presented consumers with the homepages and privacy policy links of eight pairs of Web sites. Consumers were asked to judge which site from each pair would likely guard their e-mail address. With more than 7,000 responses tabulated, the average score was just 55%, indicating that consumers are poor judges of which Web sites share e-mail addresses with third party advertisers.
Among the key findings from McAfee’s spam quiz:
• The average test taker answered three to four questions incorrectly on the eight question quiz. A consumer who chose the three “worst” sites would have received as many as 2,000 e-mails per week. On average, submitting an e-mail address to just one of the quiz’s risky sites could lead to over 300 spammy e-mails per week.
• Even though each site featured in the quiz included a prominent link to its privacy policy, only half of consumers reviewed the sites’ privacy policies before submitting their answers.
• One featured site had its privacy policy link conspicuously missing. Still, nearly half of quiz takers incorrectly chose that site as safe instead of the other site in the pair which did include a privacy policy.
• Credit cards and online dating were the most difficult categories. Only 44% and 40% of quiz takers, respectively, answered these questions correctly. The streamlined design of the risky sites in these categories may have given consumers a false sense of security.
“Spam is more than just an annoyance. The e-mail inbox remains one of the primary gateways for viruses, phishing attacks and identity theft,” said Patrick Hayati, Regional Director, McAfee, Middle East. “Moreover, uncertainty about Web site e-mail practices has caused consumer skepticism about registering for newsletters, forums and other safe online pursuits.”
The examples in the spam quiz are taken from more than 6.7 million Web sites where McAfee registered with a unique, one-time-use e-mail address in order to measure the volume and content of any subsequent e-mail from each tested site.
The pairs of sites used in the quiz come from popular online categories. The percentage of consumers able to correctly determine a Web site's safety varied by category:
• Online Dating Sites: 40%
• Credit Cards Sites: 44%
• Petition Sites: 52%
• Sweepstakes Sites: 53%
• Jokes Sites: 56%
• E-Card Sites: 57%
• Games Sites: 68%
• Scholarships Sites: 68%
The McAfee SiteAdvisor Spam quiz is available at http://www.mcafee.com/spamquiz.
McAfee has pioneered Web safety by testing and rating, on an ongoing basis, nearly every trafficked site on the Internet for a wide variety of Web safety issues including spyware, viruses, exploits, online scams, and spam. McAfee’s SiteAdvisor database contains safety test result for more than 7.6 million Web sites. SiteAdvisor is available as a free, stand-alone download at http://us.mcafee.com and is also an integrated part of McAfee’s 2007 security suites.
About McAfee, Inc.
McAfee, Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, California and the global leader in intrusion prevention and risk management, delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that secure systems and networks around the world. With its unmatched security expertise and commitment to innovation, McAfee empowers home users, businesses, the public sector, and service providers with the ability to block attacks, prevent disruptions, and continuously track and improve their security. http://www.mcafee.com
