Businesses over-estimate their trustworthy image

80% of the business respondents awarded their companies a 4 or 5 rating on a scale of 1 to 5 (where 5 is the highest) in terms of their ability to generate trust with customers, while 81% of the customer respondents chose a 3 or 4 rating. Nearly one-quarter of business respondents indicated that their company primarily published their privacy policy because it was the ethical thing to do and it made them good corporate citizens, while only a mere 3% of consumer respondents believed that to be the reason. The largest portion of consumer participants - 45% - stated that companies published their privacy policies because it was required by law, and one-quarter thought it was done to minimize legal risk. Only 13% of the business responses cited an effort to build trust with customers, compared to 16% of consumers.