Seeking help on the privacy policy
Like many of you, I copied and pasted the standard WA privacy policy (from the Level 1; Lesson 9 getting started training) into my website. Then I read it. I don't understand much of what's in it. I think that's a bad thing. I think that I am responsible for the content of my website and I can probably actually get in legal hot water if there is inaccurate information on my website and especially if I don't comply with my own privacy policy. How can I comply with it if I don't understand it? I write technical specifications for construction work for a living and am accustomed to reading this kind of legalese. I have learned through my work, that not understanding some document is not the fault of the reader, but of the one presenting the information. There are terms in the privacy policy that refer to technical issues that are not in my field of expertise making it challenging to understand...but it's more than that. I really believe we can create a privacy policy that is understandable to anyone, making it much easier to use. I'm asking for some help here for 2 things.
- Could someone out there who has the technical expertise and legal knowledge, please provide some kind of explanation or training on what needs to be in a privacy policy? I would also really appreciate a kind of glossary of terms and jargon that we're dealing with. I'd be happy to work with you on it, and I understand that it is a field that experiences frequent change. I am skilled at writing in simple to understand terms and will work with you to create something concise and functional. I think we all need to take this seriously and do our homework to understand what we promise to our visitors.
- I believe there are a couple of small but potentially dangerous errors in the standard WA privacy policy that need to be corrected, but I do not have the technical knowledge to fix them. I'm looking for someone in the know who can review the policy. I suspect that some words got dropped or something in the zillion times it's been copied and pasted and it no longer says what it was meant to say. The 2 items in particular I'm referring to are:
- "These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on YOURWEBSITE.com send directly to your browsers." Now this is a very small glitch, I think, but there are words missing or something. The sentence is grammatically incorrect and doesn't make sense. I can only fix the grammar if I understand what it's trying to say...and I don't.
- The second error I noticed is serious...it's just not true and points to something we need to address...how do people opt out of your list? You really do need to provide a means to do that. Providing an option to opt out enhances your website's credibility and integrity. But this statement is just not true..."You can opt out of all communication with YOURWEBSITE.com simply by leaving this page." It is immaterial how it morphed into that sentence. We need to fix it, develop a real means to opt out and everyone in WA needs to check their own privacy policy to make sure this sentence is not in their website.
I appreciate anyone with legal and technical clarity on these issues to contact me and work with me to review and build a simple, understandable privacy policy that will work better for us. I went looking for clarity online and found an article by a lawyer about privacy policies who said, "No privacy policy is better than a bad privacy policy." I've got to believe that--I can be held liable for what's in my privacy policy. I'm just having difficulty understanding the jargon and what it's talking about.
Thanks for all your help. This is a great community and I just know we can sort this issue out. If you think it's just really boring, it's ok...someone else will help and we'll let you know what we come up with.
Ciao, Karen
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I noted the error in grammar and reworded the phrase this way.
"These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to serve the advertisements and links that appear on BuildYourOwnDreams.net directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. "
I'm not sure about how to address opting out.
Yes, I also reworded that sentence to something similar, but used the phrase "ad networks use various technologies..." My problem with this is that I think that sentence doesn't really say anything. Of course they use various technologies; they're an internet company. I suspect this document was created by lawyers who specialize in internet privacy and these folks are unlikely to say anything so banal. it seems there is a concept missing there. I'm hunting to figure out what that could be. I'll post again if I find something useful to the WA community. Thanks for your interest.