A survey of 30,000 Web sites conducted by Enonymous.com and PC Data reveals alarming news -- only 3 percent of the surveyed sites never share personal information with a third party, and some 22,000 polled sites have no privacy policy at all, Wired News reports.

The study also reveals that of the 1,000 most-visited Web sites, only 8 percent kept private the personal information they gathered.

Enonymous officials say the study reflects a positive trend in Internet privacy policies, because only 34 percent of the most popular sites sell information without user permission, the news service reports.

Not everyone agrees with Enonymous' perspective, however. Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters, said the report really proves what most consumers have begun fearing more in recent months.

"Those that do post a privacy policy probably don't have much privacy in it," Catlett told Wired.

Meanwhile, America Online issued a statement saying it will no longer allow children younger than 13 years old to create personal profiles in AOL's membership directory, USA Today reports.

The move comes one week before the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act takes effect. While AOL said it has no way of calculating how many of its 22 million users are that young, the company does know that 80 percent of logged-on parents use content filters.

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