you can't understand privacy statements - and i can prove it!!

You Can’t Understand Privacy Policies, and I

Prove It!http://solomolegal.wordpress.com

http://solomolegal.wordpress.com/

Privacy Statement Paradox

• Privacy statements contain very complex concepts required by law or regulation

• Privacy statements are written by lawyers to comply with those concepts

• There is no requirement to make privacy statements readable, just us asking

The Paradox (contd.)• The rights we are granted in Terms and

Conditions are very important

• The collection and use of intimate personal data is also very important

• Despite this importance, we neglect to read any of these documents

• Unreadability, while not a goal, has fed on this to make privacy statements unapproachable

The Paradox (contd.)

• Most un-trained writers write at the level they are at

• i.e., lawyers write at a law degree level, and 6th graders write at a 6th grade level

• It takes training to overcome this inherent bias

Readability

• Readability is an objective measure

• Readability measures the relative educational level required to understand a particular document

• One form of readability analysis can be found in Microsoft Word, so check your own work

Readability Standards

• Oregon’s Department of Administrative Services requires all documents to be written at no more than a 10th grade level

• The National Institute for Health suggests that easy to read health materials are written at a 6th to 7th grade level

• The NIH further suggested that the lead-in paragraphs are most important

• One writer suggested that fund-raising grants be written between a 4th and 6th grade level as that is “barrier free”

Privacy Statements - Graded

• The privacy statements of various financial services institutions, social networks, search services and this blog were analyzed

• The grade level was assessed for the whole document, as well as the lead-in section

• Readability above a 10th grade level was assigned a failing grade

• NOTE: Word doesn’t go higher than 12.0, so the actual levels may be even higher

Privacy Statement Grades

Spoiler - EVERYONE FAILED!

Financial Services

• Bank of America

• Overall grade level - 12.0

• Lead-in grade level - 12.0

• Overall grade - FAIL!!!

Financial Services

• Well’s Fargo




Social Networks

• Facebook




Seeing a trend, yet?

Social Networks

• Twitter




Social Networks

• Tumblr




Search Services, etc.

• Google




SoLoMo Law Blog Post

• http://solomolegal.wordpress.com



• Overall grade - PASS!!!

• I am thankful that I passed, and was a little worried about it. :-)

The Problem - Lawyers

• Lawyers are constitutionally incapable of writing for non-lawyers (a bit broad, sorry)

• Professional writers go through formal training to write for different audiences, and in different voices

• There is no readability standard in any privacy regulation - NONE!

Take-Aways• Your privacy policy is unreadable. Get over it.

• You need to re-write your policy.

• Put duct-tape over your lawyer’s mouth and let someone else try a first draft. A professional writer might be a good choice.

• Test the readability. Use machine analysis at first, but then test with real people.

• Rinse and Repeat as needed.

A Final Word• Self-regulation and regulation are failing the

users

• There has never been a requirement to make a privacy statement readable. NONE!

• Readability needs to be a metric for all of our privacy statements and other legal notices on your websites and in mobile.

Contact Information

• LinkedIn

• http://www.linkedin.com/in/sociallaw

• Email

• [email protected]

• Website/Blog

• http://solomolegal.wordpress.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/sociallaw

Thank You!

you can't understand privacy statements - and i can prove it!!

Education