With all the identity theft incidents over the past few years, general attitudes about privacy on the Internet haven’t changed all that much. In fact, they’ve gotten a bit looser.

That’s the surprising result of surveys by ChoiceStream, reported over here by eMarketer. Back in 2004, for example, 57 percent of adult Internet users were willing to provide demographic data in exhange for personalized content. That dipped to 46 percent in 2005, but bounced back to 57 percent in 2006.

Here’s another interesting tidbit: Back in 2004, the percentage of adult Internet users willing to allow Web sites to track clicks and purchases in exchange for personalized content was 41 percent. That dipped to 32 percent in 2005, but in 2006 it bounced even higher than two years earlier, to 43 percent.

Takeaway for marketers: Yes, your customers are concerned about their privacy. But if you’re offering something of real value and their information and email inboxes with respect, those concerns can be alleviated.

For those of you who haven’t embraced online bill paying and still actually write checks, this is the time of year you’ll find yourself writing “void” a lot or trying to make a “6” look more like a “7.”

Well, just as you have to update your thinking while writing checks, you ought to update your Web site’s copyright notice: If it says “2006,” change it to “2007” now. You don’t want to look like you went out of business last year, do you?

Takeaway for marketers: You probably use your birthday or anniversary as a reminder to check the batteries in your smoke detector. Similarly, take this opportunity to conduct a copy audit of your entire Web site. Lots of changes have happened over the past year. Does your site reflect them all?

This one’s been making the email rounds again lately, at least among several people who have access to my inbox, so what the heck — here’s a midweek chuckle around the subject of particularly bad URL choices.

1. At Who Represents, you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is:
http://www.whorepresents.com/

2. Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at:
http://www.expertsexchange.com/

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at:
http://www.penisland.net/

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at:
http://www.therapistfinder.com/

5. If you’re looking for IP computer software, there’s always:
http://www.ipanywhere.com/

6. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is:
http://www.cummingfirst.com/

7. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site:
http://www.speedofart.com/

Takeaway for marketers: Every letter (and space, as you can see in this blog post’s headline) makes a difference. Do you have a professional editorial eye at your disposal?

B.L. Ochman’s blog alerts us to an upcoming MarketingProfs.com seminar, “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Metaverse: Second Life for Marketers.”

I have mixed feelings about this. Marketers absolutely need to discuss virtual worlds and do some hard thinking about how to appropriately present themselves in these environments, if at all. This white paper by Kevin Glennon is a good place to start.

But on a certain level, it feels like there will be marketers who take this seminar and then think they know what’s happening in Second Life. I submit that these are exactly the kind of marketers who need to stay away from Second Life.

Marketers who open a Second Life account, build an avatar, learn how to fly, manipulate textures, create clothing and objects and more — well, those are exactly the marketers you want to listen to if your company is considering a presence in Second Life.

Not a knock on MarketingProfs.com — I like their site a lot. I’m just sayin’, you know?

Takeaway for marketers: Much as we all wish there were, there are no shortcuts. It’s important to remember that from time to time.

The talented Scott G, one of the more eloquent and insightful posters over on the Soflow forums, keeps sending me links to his articles that I never seem to get around to presenting here. Well, I’ve finally gotten around to one. Sorry it took so long, Scott.

Check out the G-Man’s suggestions for voting participants in bad advertising campaigns off the marketing island. “Badvertising” indeed. Maybe Leonard Pinth-Garnell should open up an agency.

I do think this idea needs qualification, though: age. Fresh faces in their 20s should be excused from such draconian rules. The folly of youth, learning from your mistakes, that sort of thing. But: If you’re still doing crap in your 40s or 50s? You better hope you’re not sitting across the interview table from the G-Man, or someone like him.

Marketing takeaways: How deeply do you dig into a potential new hire’s background before actually making the hire?