Privacy statements are all over the Web, it seems, and they’re pretty much universally ignored. That’s because the legal tracts that most companies display are the epitome of user-unfriendliness. privacy

Lorrie Thomas does not give out or share the personal information of any visitor who comes to her Lorrie Thomas Web Marketing site, and she backs up this no-share promise in her privacy statement.

The entire document is a straightforward description of what the company will and will not do with personal data e.g. it “collects the domain name (where possible) of visitors to the website, and user-specific information on what pages consumers access or visit.” The information she collects is used to improve the content and layout of their websites. Cookies? None.Ad Servers? It does not maintain any such relationships. Furthermore, any contact from the company will be only about the specific information the visitor requested.

Slow-Moving Trend
With the last few years, there has been a trend among companies to make these notices more comprehensible to the average consumer.
This dates back to when the Federal Trade Commission offered up guidelines for changing the format of the privacy notices required under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB act).

Privacy statements that invoke the FTC’s anger include notices that don’t provide sufficient information i.e. about collection and disclosure practices,  security practices, or notices that are in legalese. It is also critical that companies provide adequate information, and the language is written so that it can be understood by the average reader.

Ironically, there are few laws that actually require businesses to offer their customers a privacy notice. Companies that do this include IBM, Microsoft, Kraft Food and Georgia-Pacific.

The Entertainment Factor
Sadly, there is no best practice that calls for a company to entertain its clients via its privacy notice e.g. the Kramer Law Firm, which informs readers that it’s not sophisticated enough to automatically collect your personally identifiable information. They will advise you if they are collecting your personally identifiable information.

As for security, Kramer’s Web site maintains virtually no more than the most basic safeguards, to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of personally identifiable information.

The Straightforward Route
Many companies don’t set out to write complex policies.

Joseph E. Campana, author of Privacy Makeover: The Essential Guide to Best Practices, points to his privacy notice as a guide. It includes sections on the information the site collects; how that information is used; whether it’s disclosed to others (it’s not); its security policy and its opt-out provision.

There are handfuls of questions that a good privacy notice will answer and without the use of legalese:
• What information is collected;
• How it is used;
• To whom it is disclosed;
• What security is provided;
• How visitors are notified of changes to the policy;
• Contact information of the company