Over at Spamroll Test your ability to avoid spam, Michael Gracie asks how people did when they take the SiteAdvisor Spam Quiz. Basically, look at different sites, read their privacy policies, and decide which of the two sites is trustworthy. I got 100%, 8 out of 8 correct. Then again, I’m the webmaster for the Center for Democracy & Technology, so I would be worried if I had missed any.
That said though, Joe or Jane User out there is not going to actually read the legal contracts that are privacy policies. A helpful guideline that almost works for this quiz: Look at the ads on the site. If they are in your face, show lots of flesh, mention Paris Hilton (or any other “singer”), or the site has pop-ups (or pop-unders) the site is not trust-worthy.
Also, I always use a unique address to register at any web site. See http://f79f65a2ea59016f063cb987424ed7b2.PlanetMike.com for an example address.