Should I read a website's privacy policy, and what should I look for if I do?

Should I read a website's privacy policy, and what should I look for if I do?

Hacker X (Computer Security Expert) gives expert video advice on: How can I protect myself on the Internet?; How can I keep my identity private while surfing? and more...

The majority of websites, especially commercial websites, have a privacy policy. While they can be long and cumbersome, it is often worthwhile reading them, if for nothing else, to find out what their policy is on selling their mailing list. What that means is that they either will or will not sell the collection of names, essentially e-mail addresses, that have registered with their site. Whether this is important to you or not is a personal decision, but a lot of the spam that you receive in in your mail box every day comes from companies that have purchased mailing lists from other companies.