Walls: Let's face it we've all done it, as you look at a privacy policy on your mobile device
just scroll through it as fast as you can
you hit I agree and you jump to the app or whatever it is you're trying to get to
in the first place. Jonathan Zuch of the Association of Competitive Technologies is here to talk
about that process
and how we can maybe simplify it John, because we do want people
to be aware of what information is out there. Jonathan Zuck: I agree
I mean it is, it's a perennial problem. I think to some extent, that
we're so anxious to get to the technology that were downloading, this app we've
heard about, you know,
a friend has shared with us, etc. That we click I agree without really
paying attention
to what we're agreeing to and the issue that's most
often discussed in that context is
what of my data is being collected and how is it being used? Are you just using it in
your app? Are you sharing with advertisers, so that you can serve up
more relevant ads to me, instead of generic ads?
Or is it being used for more data analysis purposes?
People want know how their information is being used.
Obviously these long text privacy policy aren't the way to get that.
People just aren't going to read them.
We joke about the one-eyed monster right? I'm looking at this
thing with one eye.
While doing something else, right? How do I
capture attention and communicate with you effectively in
that environment? Walls: So bridging that gap or at least closing that because
there is a
needed, I think we all have and desire, as you point out
I want to know what what company X is doing with my data
I want to get to it to.
How do we get a a shorter form or some kind of reduced
content that does still get the point across?
Zuch: I would say that's the new trend if you will, right? I mean privacy policies
had their genesis in a room full of lawyers
You know right now in America and many places around the
world
you're held accountable legally for the promises you make, so to the degree
which you tell people
what you're doing and when you're doing it and why you're doing it etc.
There is somebody, in our case the FTC, who is going to hold you to that.
So, the fact that that's the case means that the people making those promises
were usually lawyers
and doing them in an expansive and incomprehensible way as possible
so they could cover themselves later when they were talking to another lawyer
Walls: But, there is that tension though, right? That you do have a
legal obligation, but
in the real world it's not flying. Zuch: That's right, so
the privacy policies were designed for lawyers to communicate with
lawyers
when all is said and done. Consumers aren't really a part of that, so how do I
better communicate between the developer
and the customer and that's where this evolution to what we call short-form
privacy policies, so that maybe I can just have some categories of information
and I boil things down, like is it contact related information, is it
biometric information , there's all these
health apps now and things like that. What sort of information is being
collected by the application
How is it being used by you and then under what circumstances are you sharing
with others?
The degree to which we can more effectively communicate that with
our customers
I think that's how we build trust going forward, so maybe we design a screen
that's got
more iconic view of those things, so that I can look at it in
five minutes most or two minutes to try to really see okay
is this an app that collects this type of information maybe, I better drill into that
and read a little bit more rather than having to find it in paragraphs and prose.
Walls: The challenge or one of them, I think
is, and not to knock government
but in terms of regulation and regulator mindset
it's like more is better and we're going to protect people
entirely, we're going to be comprehensive and, so there's probably in the development
community or the app community
I don't want to wind up being called to Washington to explain a policy
that we thought we were following
but we didn't dot every i and we kinda got caught on one here.
Zuch: You're going to need to do both, that's what's really going to boil down
to, you're gonna need to have a
privacy policy that you do via privacy choice.org or, you know,
privacy policy generator or an attorney's going to have to draft one
you're gonna need that to cover yourself right, from a legal perspective
but how you communicate that with your users can be done in a much more simplified
way, so that they might actually make effective use of that information
in making choices about how the information is collected by you
like you know you'll see a notice, can I use your location information, right
and sometimes it obvious right, if it's Uber you know they need it
find you, right? Other times, you're like, why do you need my location information
and sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with the working of
the app, so actually just communicating to your user that I'm collecting this
because, I can as opposed to because it's required for the app to function is
something that's still a value
and so i think there's some work being done and were part of that work to come up
with reusable code that developers might use
to communicate more effectively with their end-user
in broad strokes what's being collected and how it's being used
Walls: And if anybody has any questions about the organization, you said it was act on line
Zuch: Yes, www.actonline.org
and I don't know if you put up other URL's I can give you one
later, something that people can use to see
this privacy policy in action if you want
Walls: It'll be on the screen right now: http://j.mp/privacydashboard & rtps://github.com/actionline/dashboard Jonathan thank you for the time we
appreciate that. Zuch: My pleasure.