Insurers Ignore Customer Privacy, Survey Finds

Insurers Ignore Customer Privacy, Survey Finds

NU Online News Service, Aug. 31, 2:57 a.m. EDT?The number of insurers who share online customers' information without their permission has nearly doubled over the course of the year, a consulting firm study has found.[@@]

The findings were reported by The Customer Respect Group in Bellevue, Wash., which also looked at which insurers did the best job of handling online customers. Among property-casualty insurers, Amica Mutual Insurance Company and Progressive Corp. received the highest ratings.

TCRG said its results were achieved by interviewing a representative sample of the adult Internet population, and by analyzing more than 1,000 Web sites across a spectrum of industries.

TCRG said in a similar study this past winter, 35 percent of insurers said they share data with affiliates, subsidiaries or business partners without permission from users, and in its latest study that number grew to 60 percent.

The firm found that 19 percent of concerns studied do not collect data, or use collected data only for internal purposes, 24 percent share data with affiliates or subsidiaries, and 36 percent share data with business partners without permission from users.

The firm found that the percentage of insurers with privacy policies remained constant at 93 percent.

TCRG said it found five insurance firms that don't offer privacy policies.

The company noted that the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003, which took effect this July 1, has serious implications for any commercial Web sites without privacy policies that may have visitors from that state.

Among all the surveyed firms, CRG said only 2 percent provide forms that can be used by those with disabilities.

"We are concerned in the deterioration in both responsiveness and principles areas since our last study," announced Roger Fairchild, TCRG president. "With all the data available regarding the importance consumers place on getting accurate and complete responses to their questions in a timely fashion and their concern over how personal information is being used, we had expected to see better scores."

He added that "insurance firms need to take immediate action to improve these and other areas of concern noted in the report."

The "Summer 2004 Online Customer Respect Study" of the largest U.S. insurance firms put Western & Southern Financial highest among life-health mutual providers, while Knights of Columbus scored lowest. Phoenix Companies topped the life-health stock firm list.

The study assigns a Customer Respect Index rating to each company on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest achievable score.

TCRG said the Customer Respect Index is a qualitative and quantitative in-depth analysis and independent measure of a customer's online experience when interacting with companies via the Internet.

The consulting firm said it grouped the attributes involved in online customer experience and measured them as indicators of Simplicity (ease of navigation), Responsiveness (quick and thorough responses to inquiries), Privacy (respects customer privacy), Attitude (customer-focus of site), Transparency (open and honest policies) and Principles (values and respects customer data).

Those factors combined, they said, measure a company's overall Customer Respect. TCRG said it is continually enhancing its methodology by expanding the list of attributes researched and reported on. Recently, the firm expanded that list to include respect for individuals with disabilities. In addition, this research was conducted based on the insurance-specific methodology introduced this summer.

In the "Winter 2004 Insurance Study," the firm said 37 percent of surveyed firms didn't respond to all inquiries. In the Summer 2004 survey, responding firms increased to 52 percent.

The overall average for all firms was 5.7.

Additional information about the study can be obtained online at www.CustomerRespect.com, by calling 425-454-4151, or by e-mailing info@customerrespect.com.