The Center for Information Policy Leadership recently published a nice framework (PDF) for creating a multi layered privacy notice, whose benefits they outline in the introductory paragraph:
Experts agree that good privacy begins with effective transparency. Transparency requires privacy notices that are easy to understand, facilitate comparison, and are actionable. Privacy notices must also comply with legal requirements that may differ from country to country, and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Research on how people learn has shown that for notices to be easy to read and understand, they must be short, use plain language, and be presented in a common format. Complete notices tend to be longer and more complex, so it is impossible to have both sets of requirements in one document. A multilayered notice is made up of a condensed notice that contains all the key factors in a way that is easy to understand and is actionable, and a complete notice with all the legal requirements. A growing number of privacy officials and experts agree that multilayered notices meet the transparency objective. Corporate and government sponsored research shows that multilayered notices build both trust and compliance.
A layered approach can help make privacy policies more approachable and understandable to users, as will the documents suggestion to compartmentalize the policies various components into headings such as “Scope”, “Personal Information”, “Uses”, “Choices” and “How to Contact Us”. Standardizing privacy policies across sites would be a step forward in transparency, informed consent, and user trust.
[via Peter Fleischer]
MichaelZimmer.org 