Powered by InformationWeek Business Technology Network
Topics:
Analytics
Privacy Policies Are For PhDs
In our recent InformationWeek Analytics 2008 Strategic Security Survey (registration required), a little more than half of respondents indicated they post a privacy policy for customers. The question is, how many people actually read them and, as a follow-on, how many people understand them? A privacy policy isn't meant to inform you of your rights. A privacy policy is a legal document to be used in legal matters. It is written in a way that legal professionals understand. That's great, but why can't companies create an easy-to-understand privacy policy for the rest of us? Because if they do, they run the risk of making conflicting assertions which can be used against them in a legal fight. Bottom line: Privacy policies protect the companies that publish them, not you. BTW, the score used in the BNET article is based on the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG). This blog post scored a 13.94, which equates to some college required. « Google Releases New, Consolidated BlackBerry App For Plain And Google Apps Gmail | Main | Bluetooth To Be The Killer App Of Mobile Internet Devices? » |
| Sign Up Now For InformationWeek News Alerts |