Practical Privacy in Plain English Shows What Privacy Policies Really Mean

Privacy policies are known for their density and are written in legal language – mostly to protect the company behind them – but Usable Privacy wants to transform them into something you can actually read and understand. Just give the service a URL and if the privacy policy is available, it will segment it and flush it out for you to read.

As an example, we have the above Kinja privacy policy (direct link here if you want to see it ) as an example. The policy is laid out in all its glory, but color-coded, which sections of the policy address various issues such as tracking, disclosure of information to third parties, what information the service collects from you, the choice and control of the user, and also soon. There is a section for additional sites to which the policy applies in addition to the one you are reading, and quick links to navigate to sections of the policy that may interest you.

The first time you log in, Usable Privacy will tell you how it all works, and I found that policies are available for most of the core services (and a few smaller ones, which was nice to see). The purpose of the service is not. to completely demystify these policies, but make them easier to read and help you decide if the compromise on your privacy is worth the features you get in return when you sign up. It’s worth bookmarking if you’re interested in privacy at all before signing up for this hot new web app that everyone’s talking about, or some startup you’ve never heard of that claims to “undermine” some then a new industry. Follow the link below to give it a try.

Useful Privacy | via Consumerist

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