1994 Equifax/Harris Consumer Privacy Survey Introduction   The 1994 Equifax-Harris Consumer Privacy Survey is the fifth in a series of Equifax-sponsored surveys conducted to track important attitudes and opinions of the American public as they relate to privacy, and to identify new issues that may be of concern to Americans and to gauge their opinions on these issues. Like the surveys that have preceded it -- The Equifax Report on Consumers in the Information Age (1990), the Harris-Equifax Consumer Privacy Surveys 1991 and 1992, and the Harris-Equifax Health Information Privacy Survey (1993) -- this 1994 survey documents the American public's privacy concerns and attitudes toward technology, business, and government. In addition, it reports on the American public's confidence in the groups and organizations that handle personal information, their acceptance of national identification systems for work and health care, how they feel about having their medical records used for medical research, and how safeguards would affect their opinions about such systems and uses. This survey also looks at the American publicÕs views on the types of information auto insurance companies and utility companies should use when making decisions affecting applicants and consumers. The full report not only identifies important demographic differences as they relate to these issues, but also examines the role of attitudes such as those toward the government and health organizations and past behaviors such as prior experience with social security number misuse and driving accidents. The survey results are based on a total of 1005 telephone interviews conducted from August 17 to September 4, 1994, with adults 18 years and older. The adults surveyed represent a cross-section of adults in the 48 contiguous United States. Completed interviews were weighted according to age, education, race, and sex to bring the sample profile in line with the overall profile of adults in the 48 contiguous United States. A more detailed description of the methodology, including weighting, is provided in Appendix A. A copy of the questionnaire with top-line results can be found in Appendix B. An Interpretive Essay by Dr. Alan F. Westin, Academic Advisor to this survey, follows the Executive Summary. Acknowledgments Louis Harris and Associates gratefully acknowledges the continued guidance provided by Dr. Alan Westin in all aspects of this and previous surveys conducted for Equifax Inc. A Note on Reading the Tables The base for each question is the total number of adults answering that question. All base sizes shown in the tables are unweighted; percentages are weighted. An asterisk (*) on a table signals a value of less than one-half percent (0.5%). A dash (-) represents a value of zero. Percentages may not always add to 100 because of computer rounding or the acceptance of multiple answers from respondents. Note that in some cases results may be based on small sample sizes (N < 50). This is typically true whe n sub-group comparisons are made. Caution should be used in drawing any conclusions from the results based on these small samples. Public Release of Survey Findings All surveys conducted by Louis Harris and Associates are designed to adhere to the code of standards of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) and the code of the National Council of Public Polls (NCPP). Because data from the survey will be released to the public, any release must stipulate that the complete report is also available.