Privacy is important to most of us and based on the feedback we get from Naked Security readers, especially important to you.
The problem with attempting to protect our privacy online begins with the policies.
They vary in complexity, but invariably they are confusing, contain carefully crafted language designed to hold up in a court of law and are too long for most people to get their heads around.
Fortunately some very smart people at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada created The Canadian Access to Social Media Information Project (CATSMI Project).
The project analyzes the privacy policies of more than 20 popular social media services and provides a plainly worded description of what you can expect from them concerning the following topics:
- Who is your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) disclosed to?
- How can you complain? Is there a specific privacy officer listed?
- Will your PII possibly be disclosed to law enforcement agencies? If so, why?
- Can the site change its privacy policy without telling you?
- Does the PII collected change depending on whether you are an adult or a child?
- If you’re a child, can you sign up with adult consent?
- What counts as PII that the site collects?
- Can you opt out of disclosing your PII?
- Does the privacy policy mention national or international privacy laws?
- Can you permanently delete information that you previously provided?
- Is the privacy policy just for that site or is it part of a larger organization?
- Does the privacy policy involve self-regulation or a seal of approval?
- Can you find out when the privacy policy was last updated? Can you see older versions?
- Does the site make commitments to keeping your PII secure?
- If there’s a breach of information on the site, will they let you know?
- Can you access the privacy policy from the home page? Is the policy all in one place or in different parts of the website?
- Can you correct or update your PII if you want to? Does the site tell you how to do this?
That’s quite a list! But it does pull out the most important information to know about what companies are collecting and what they are going to do with it.
For Canadians there is additional information on our privacy law, PIPEDA, and what might change if Parliament passes bill C-30.
CATSMI is a great resource for Canadians and I think a great resource for everyone. The easiest way to get started is to click on “Learn About…” -> “A Network” and choose a provider you are interested in.
It isn’t that hard and you owe it to yourself to be aware of what organizations want to do with your PII.
Spend a few minutes on CATSMI and use that information to help you decide what you want to share online.
Source – [NakedSecurity]
