Privacy policies are used just about anywhere a website gains access to some or all of your personal data. But not all privacy policies are created equal. Each website uses its own variation of the privacy policy and lays out what it does and doesn’t do with your data. Chances are good that you don’t bother to take the time to read them as you’re interested in creating your account. So you click the box that you’ve read it and move on only to learn later that you gave up your right to some privacy. So what companies have the best privacy policies? Following are three of them that don’t take your privacy lightly.
Google’s corporate motto of “Do the right thing” morphed from its original statement of “Do no evil.” However you want to look at Google, there’s no denying that it has done a great job of making their privacy policy easy to understand. The policy uses a simple writing style and avoids using confusing legal language. You’re left in no doubt what the company does with your data, and you can also rest assured that it won’t do anything to put your personal information in jeopardy.
It’s true that Google makes most of its money off advertising to its users, but the ads are never intrusive and won’t ruin your browsing experience. Hence the motto of “do the right thing.”
Facebook is one of the most widely used sites on the Internet, and it’s a repository for a lot of personal information. People post pictures to share with others and talk about their lives. This puts Facebook in a tricky position because it too uses that information to lure in advertising dollars. But it may surprise you to learn that the social media giant makes it a point to tell you, the user, what kind of information it retains and how it gets used.
Facebook recently made a change to the privacy policy that is a little surprising: it now prohibits developers to use data from the site to create tools for third-party surveillance. That means no one, even law enforcement, can create an application, program, or tool to track data generated by targeted users.
Yet another site that holds a lot of personal data, LinkedIn has put some effort into making its privacy policy easy to understand. It’s gone so far as to create a video that goes along with the recent version of the policy. It does take some time to go through everything and sometimes the wording isn’t the best. Ultimately the policy is very thoroughly explained and leaves you in no doubt of what the site does with your data.
Going over a privacy policy helps you make decisions on what you want to share and what you don’t. The easier the policy is to read, the easier it is to share only what’s necessary and hold back what isn’t, so you can keep your data out of harm’s way.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
