Exploratory Analysis Of The Readability Of Information Privacy Statement Of The Primary Social Networks

Abstract

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0.5in; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">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. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0.5in; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0.5in; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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<sup>+</sup> syllables words, count of 6<sup>+</sup> characters words, count of 20<sup>+</sup> word sentences). </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0.5in; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 27pt 0pt 0.5in; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">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 most of social networks users. (2) Using Yahoo.com as a benchmark, privacy policy statements can accomplish their goals and maintain a reading grade level of high school education or less. Accordingly, social networks can accomplish their goal of providing clear and concise privacy policy statements without having to complicate the policy statements with too many 3+ syllable words, 6+ characters words and 20+ word sentences. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In summary, it is possible to write a legally binding privacy policy statement that is also clear and easy to read.</span></p>