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I have often made good use of the Garden Watchdog ratings before ordering from online companies. However, until recently I hadn't bothered to consider their privacy policies, making the naive assumption that highly-rated companies would keep my personal information to themselves. I hate junk mail and noticed an increasing number of unsolicited garden-related catalogs. Many of the best companies actually state their privacy policy on the home page, and typically a company that doesn't bury its policy has a "no-sharing" policy. So I was surprised, after clicking on the "Privacy Policy" link at a well-known Top 30 company's website, that their default is to share customers' mailing addresses with other companies (" We occasionally share our postal mailing list with carefully selected companies and groups that offer products and services we believe our customers will be interested in. If you don’t want to be included, just let us know at [email address]"). I emailed them and they say they took my name off their share list, but I think the default should be an opt-in, not an opt-out. How many people bother to click on privacy policy links?
I checked most of the other Top 30 companies and, while I couldn't find policies on a few, most had a non-sharing policy, sometimes stated plainly and clearly on the home page. If you care about how much junk mail you receive you might be wise to start looking at this when you order. Personally, I don't think a company should get a top rating or more than a "Neutral" if they share your information.
