Follow up the federal Do Not Call registry with a Do Not Track list for those who shop online from home and elsewhere.

That's the appeal from consumer agencies to the Federal Trade Commission after a compilation of several academic studies revealed online "privacy policies" at ecommerce sites are not what users think they are -- often because they don't take the time to read them.

With no Do Not Track service in place as the holiday shopping frenzy ensues in households from coast-to-coast, reading privacy policies is consumers' best bet to learn what happens to their information when they shop online.

As many as 63 percent of Americans incorrectly believe the phrase "privacy policy" on online shopping sites signifies that their information will be kept private, according to "Consumers Fundamentally Misunderstand The Online Advertising Marketplace".

Also, 37 percent of online shoppers falsely believe that a privacy policy prohibits a website from using information to analyze individuals' activities online.

Wrong again.

In fact, "privacy policies" typically explain common ecommerce practices, those perfectly legal information-collection techniques that are the foundation of online advertising business models, according to the report of surveys co-compiled by the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication and University of California-Berkeley Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic.

"They assume the website cannot engage in many practices that, in reality, are common in ecommerce. Consumers do not understand the nature and legality of information-collection techniques that form the core of online advertising business models," according to the report.

The report's authors say because incorrect consumer beliefs about privacy policies are so widespread and disconnected, the Feds should step in to better police the term "privacy policy" to make it truer to its perception.

Consumers also believe privacy policies prohibit "enhancement" -- the common practice of collecting data and combining it with information from other sources.

In one survey when consumers were asked "If a website has a privacy policy, it means that the site cannot buy information about you from other sources to analyze your online activities," 39.8 percent answered (incorrectly) true, and 10.8 percent didn't know.

However, when information-gathering techniques -- the process of tracking, extracting and sharing information to make money from advertising -- were explained to consumers, 85 percent overwhelmingly rejected the privacy they give up in exchange for access to content.

When offered a choice to get content from a valued site with such a policy or pay for the site and not have it collect information, 54 percent of adults who go online at home said that they would rather use legwork and search for information offline than exercise either option presented.

The report concludes: "As the Federal Trade Commission revisits privacy issues implicated by behavioral profiling and online advertising, its approach must be informed by the fact that consumers understandably assume that 'privacy policies' create substantive rules limiting collection and use of data. The Commission should police the term 'privacy policy' so that websites and network advertisers have protections in place consistent with reasonable consumer expectations."

Consumers are also responsible for taking steps to keep private information as close to the vest as possible.

• Privacy Rights Clearing House offers insights on the privacy policy issue in "Online Shopping Tips: E-Commerce and You."

• The Federal Trade Commission also offers a guide "Online Shopping & E-Payments."

Published: November 19, 2007

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.