Some of the most notable changes are in third party information sharing and the use of third-party cookies, according to the report which was based on information collected by accountancy firm Ernst & Young.
To measure the trends, the figures from the new survey, released yesterday, were compared to those in a report by the Federal Trade Commission, carried out in May 2000.
According to the group, among the most popular 100 domains, the proportion collecting personal information fell from 96% to 84%, while the proportion using third-party cookies to track surfing behaviour fell from 78% to 48%.
Privacy notices were found to be more prevalent, more prominent and more complete, and more sites offer choice, especially over whether information can be shared with third parties. The percentage of top-100 sites offering third-party choice jumped from 77 to 93. And the use of “opt-in” as a method of choice more than doubled, from 15% to 32%.