Privacy Policies and Users’ Trust: Does Readability Matter? (original) (raw)
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Exploring the Impact of Readability of Privacy Policies on Users' Trust
Empirical studies have repeatedly pointed out that the readability of a privacy policy is a potential source of trust of online users. Nevertheless, many online companies still keep the readability of their privacy policies at a low level. This could possibly coincide with a low compliance of their privacy policies with the guidelines of fair information practices and thus with users’ privacy expectations. Against this background, this study seeks to clarify the role of perceived and actual readability of user-friendly and -unfriendly privacy policies in shaping user’s trust in a mobile service provider. Tested for two different mobile service scenarios that differ in the sensitivity of user data (educational enter- tainment app vs. health app), our hypotheses are verified based on the responses of 539 online users. Our findings reveal that in the case of a user-unfriendly data-handling policy, the effect of actual readability of a privacy policy outweighs the effect of its perceived readability in forming users’ trust. At the same time, for a user-friendly privacy policy, only perceived readability plays a significant role in promoting users’ trust in the provider of an educational entertainment app. In a sensitive healthcare context, however, perceived and actual readability of privacy policies are almost equally important.
A user-centric evaluation of the readability of privacy policies in popular web sites
Information Systems Frontiers, 2010
This paper reports on a formal subject-based experiment, which seeks to evaluate the readability of privacy policy statements found on the Internet. This experiment uses 50 participants and privacy policies collected from 10 of the most popular web sites on the Internet. It evaluates, using a cloze test, the subjects' ability to comprehend the content of these privacy policies. The paper also compares its results with the results from previous studies on this topic. In general, it finds that privacy policies are "difficult" to comprehend.
Are Online Privacy Policies Readable?
International Journal of Information Security and Privacy, 2010
This paper examines the question of are on-line privacy policies understandable to the users of the Internet? This examination is undertaken by collecting privacy policies from the most popular sites on the Internet, and analyzing their readability using a number of readability measures. The study finds that the results are consistent regardless of the readability measure utilized. The authors also compare their findings with the results from previous studies. The authors conclude that, on average, privacy policies are becoming more readable. However, these policies are still beyond the capability of a large section of Internet users, and roughly 20% of the policies require an educational level approaching a post-graduate degree to support comprehension.
Readability of websites security privacy policies: A survey on text content and readers
Science and Engineering Research Support Society, 2020
The aim of website's Privacy Policies is to educate consumers of a website's practices and procedures relating to their collection, usage, exchange, control, protection and the use of technology in relation to the information collection (website beacon and cookies) and transmission of user's personal information anytime he visits Internet website. This paper discusses a readability issues in privacy policies and how privacy scholars approach the issue. The paper also compares and analyzes research results on readability measurement of privacy policies and divides them into two categories according to different perspective. The perspective includes readability measurement from reader's perspective and readability measurement from privacy policies text content's perspective. Our finding shows that website providers should give consumers better control regarding their information and give them more freedom in privacy policies. Only then will consumers become liberated from the burden of choosing between 2 unspeakable options. A legally binding document on the privacy policy can be written, that will also be clear and simple to read.
Large-Scale Readability Analysis of Privacy Policies
Online privacy policies notify users of a Website how their personal information is collected, processed and stored. Against the background of rising privacy concerns, privacy policies seem to represent an influential instrument for increasing customer trust and loyalty. However, in practice, consumers seem to actually read privacy policies only in rare cases, possibly reflecting the common assumption stating that policies are hard to comprehend. By designing and implementing an automated extraction and readability analysis toolset that embodies a diversity of established readability measures, we present the first large-scale study that provides current empirical evidence on the readability of nearly 50,000 privacy policies of popular English-speaking Websites. The results empirically confirm that on average, current privacy policies are still hard to read. Furthermore, this study presents new theoretical insights for readability research, in particular, to what extent practical read-ability measures are correlated. Specifically, it shows the redundancy of several well-established readability metrics such as SMOG, RIX, LIX, GFI, FKG, ARI, and FRES, thus easing future choice making processes and comparisons between readability studies, as well as calling for research towards a readability measures framework. Moreover, a more sophisticated privacy policy extractor and ana-lyzer as well as a solid policy text corpus for further research are provided. CCS CONCEPTS • Security and privacy → Human and societal aspects of security and privacy; Usability in security and privacy
Readability of Privacy Policies of Healthcare Websites
Health-related personal information is very privacy-sensitive. Online privacy policies inform Website users about the ways their personal information is gathered, processed and stored. In the light of increasing privacy concerns, privacy policies seem to be an important mechanism for increasing customer loyalty. However, in practice, consumers only rarely read privacy policies, possibly due to the common assumption that policies are hard to read. By designing and implementing an automated extraction and readability analysis toolset, we present the first study that provides empirical evidence on readability of over 5,000 privacy policies of health websites and over 1,000 privacy policies of top e-commerce sites. Our results confirm the difficulty of reading current privacy policies. We further show that health websites’ policies are more readable than top e-commerce ones, but policies of non-commercial health websites are worse readable than commercial ones. Our study also provides a solid policy text corpus for further research.
Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER), 2011
The goal of a privacy policy statement of a web site is to inform users of the policies and procedures of a web-site as it relates to their collection, use, sharing, access, security and use of technology as it relates to collection of data (cookies and web beacons) and disclosure of personally identifiable information when a user visits the web site. In this paper we perform exploratory data analysis of the historical evolution of the readability as well as the reading grade level of the privacy policy statements of Google, Yahoo, Myspace and Facebook. We used the Flesch-Kinkaid, Gunning Fog and SMOG reading grade analysis measures. We gathered summary statistics of the complexity of each privacy statement (count of 3+ syllables words, count of 6+ characters words, count of 20+ word sentences). We conclude that (1) Except for Yahoo.com, these privacy policy statements are currently written for web-users with a minimum of 2 years of college education. This is not the case for mos...
Privacy policies as decision-making tools
Proceedings of the 2004 conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '04, 2004
Studies have repeatedly shown that users are increasingly concerned about their privacy when they go online. In response to both public interest and regulatory pressures, privacy policies have become almost ubiquitous. An estimated 77% of websites now post a privacy policy. These policies differ greatly from site to site, and often address issues that are different from those that users care about. They are in most cases the users' only source of information. This paper evaluates the usability of online privacy policies, as well as the practice of posting them. We analyze 64 current privacy policies, their accessibility, writing, content and evolution over time. We examine how well these policies meet user needs and how they can be improved. We determine that significant changes need to be made to current practice to meet regulatory and usability requirements.