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If companies have their way, you will have to check privacy statements frequently -- meaning weekly, daily, hourly? There is a problem with that philosophy, by the time you find out, the damage could be done.
It seems we need a balance of power. Companies need to be able to control their product/services and change them as they see fit. Consumers need to have an understanding of what the rules are and be alerted if the rules changes so they may make informed decisions. I guess you might call this transparency. Right now the balance of power seems to be skewed to the companies; especially ones giving you free services with opt-out based policies.
One way to help resolve this might be to have a standard method of finding the policy information; such as having on every home page/login screen an easy to find Policy Information button. This would take you to a standard form that has a high level summary in plain language that explains the policy along with the normal lawyer speak they usually have. Whenever a change in the policy takes place, the Policy Information button could change color or change the icon or some other alert for a period of time, so users could easily see that something has changed. On this page it could even link you to the opt-in/out page.
Companies should be doing something along these lines now, otherwise people will complain and Congress will create new laws so companies will be forced to do something. All of this will take time when companies have an opportunity right now to inform the consumer.
One way to help resolve this might be to have a standard method of finding the policy information; such as having on every home page/login screen an easy to find Policy Information button. This would take you to a standard form that has a high level summary in plain language that explains the policy along with the normal lawyer speak they usually have. Whenever a change in the policy takes place, the Policy Information button could change color or change the icon or some other alert for a period of time, so users could easily see that something has changed. On this page it could even link you to the opt-in/out page.
Companies should be doing something along these lines now, otherwise people will complain and Congress will create new laws so companies will be forced to do something. All of this will take time when companies have an opportunity right now to inform the consumer.
A friend of mine told me about Sony. They require the user to read or say they read changes to the privacy statement before they can log in. That seems like a good idea.
should, in my experience, simply contain a log-in dialog. Many people use password managers which can automatically log the user into the site. Anything else on the log-in page can break the auto-login, simply break using the password manager at all, and/or will be ignored during the log-in process.
Notification that changes have been made to the "Privacy Policy" and/or to other documents such as Terms of Use or Terms of Service can be presented first on the page that is rendered after the user has logged-in. I don't think that changing color, shape, or logos on the "button" are likely either to be recognized at all, or recognized as signifying a change to anything except the button. So simply display the notification in a prominent place and in plain text with a large point-size to the font, in whatever language is appropriate for the user who logged-in.
What I really hate about such notifications is that they seldom tell me what changes have been made, and I'm not likely to recognize any changes by re-reading a document that I might never have read before anyway. Any website operator or owner who assumes that I visit their site often is most likely deluding themselves.
The only really effective way to address privacy issues is by laws that govern which data a person or organization may acquire about any other person or organization, and govern the uses which the acquirer can make of it.
Cisco / Linksys is now a company with which I do not expect to do business in the future. I am not happy with the E2500 which I bought about six months ago to replace the aging WRT54G router that I've been using for several years. As far as I know, the E2500 is not affected by the recent Cisco / Linksys shenanigans. They obviously don't have any respect for the individuals who have purchased their routers. I have certainly lost all respect that I've ever had for them.
Notification that changes have been made to the "Privacy Policy" and/or to other documents such as Terms of Use or Terms of Service can be presented first on the page that is rendered after the user has logged-in. I don't think that changing color, shape, or logos on the "button" are likely either to be recognized at all, or recognized as signifying a change to anything except the button. So simply display the notification in a prominent place and in plain text with a large point-size to the font, in whatever language is appropriate for the user who logged-in.
What I really hate about such notifications is that they seldom tell me what changes have been made, and I'm not likely to recognize any changes by re-reading a document that I might never have read before anyway. Any website operator or owner who assumes that I visit their site often is most likely deluding themselves.
The only really effective way to address privacy issues is by laws that govern which data a person or organization may acquire about any other person or organization, and govern the uses which the acquirer can make of it.
Cisco / Linksys is now a company with which I do not expect to do business in the future. I am not happy with the E2500 which I bought about six months ago to replace the aging WRT54G router that I've been using for several years. As far as I know, the E2500 is not affected by the recent Cisco / Linksys shenanigans. They obviously don't have any respect for the individuals who have purchased their routers. I have certainly lost all respect that I've ever had for them.
Can I return the product for a refund when the privacy policy is no longer acceptable. They need to define these once and get it right. Not pulling a update fiasco... Time to verify my Linksys routers are good, maybe change the firmware to an open source version.
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