Hitwise receives PWC Audtitors seal of approval

HITWISE MEDIA RELEASE

Hitwise receives PricewaterhouseCoopers seal of approval

An independent Audit Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers approves Hitwise’s Privacy and Data Integrity Controls

19 February 2001 – The methodology of Hitwise, New Zealand’s leading online competitive intelligence service, has received the seal of approval from global audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In an independent audit of Hitwise’s privacy and data integrity controls, PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that “the privacy of information transmitted and processed through, and the integrity of the web site popularity reported on the Hitwise World Wide Web site, in all material respects, is fairly stated.”

Executive Director of Hitwise Mr Adrian Giles, welcomed the report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, and said it would provide customers of Hitwise with increased confidence about using the service.

“Many businesses rely on the data delivered by Hitwise, so it is important that they understand exactly how that information is collected, and how it is analysed and presented by Hitwise,” Mr Giles said today. “The audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers assures businesses that our data integrity controls are completely transparent, and can stand up to scrutiny.”

Mr Giles said Hitwise was committed to ensuring users of the Hitwise service were fully informed about the company’s data collection processes, and had disclosed full details of the methodology on the Hitwise website since launching last July.

Hitwise has consistently tried to bring clarity to the often confused Internet measurement market by providing customers with easy access to information about the methodology.

“Different methodologies will frequently produce different results, so it is important that customers have a complete understanding of how we collect and analyse our data,” Mr Giles said. “The audit by PWC ensures the competitive intelligence provided by Hitwise is in accordance with the disclosed methodology.”

The PWC Audit also examined Hitwise’s privacy policy of Hitwise, and concluded that information tendered by customers as a result of electronic commerce and collected from Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) was handled in accordance with the disclosed privacy practices.

Mr Giles said the collection and usage of all data by Hitwise is in accordance with local and international guidelines, and complies with the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Bill 2000, recently passed by the Australian Federal Government in response to public concerns about Internet privacy.

About Hitwise (www.hitwise.co.nz)
Hitwise is New Zealand’s leading online competitive intelligence service giving web strategists, agencies and financial analysts real-time insights on the online competitive environment. Hitwise monitors the surfing habits of local Internet users, covering home, work and educational use, through partnerships with a wide range of Internet Service Providers (ISP’s).

Hitwise has applied an innovative new methodology to a new medium, and can therefore provide a metrics service covering more websites and more people every day.

Hitwise is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and offers its service in
Australia, New Zealand, and coming soon – Hong Kong, UK, Korea, South Africa
and Japan.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Ms Angela Friend
Public Relations Manager
Tel: 61 3 9820 5443
Fax: 61 3 9820 0407
http://www.hitwise.co.nz
angela@hitwise.com

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