Hacker News Reader

Comment by pledess | Hacker News Reader

The main issue for me is I wouldn't let my kids use a website with these terms "We may, at any time, and at our sole discretion, modify these Terms of Use, including our Privacy Policy, with or without notice to the User. Any such modification will be effective immediately upon public posting. Your continued use of codeguppy.com account following any such modification constitutes your acceptance of these modified Terms." Some of your current policies (such as "not offering any discussion boards, forums or social media like sharing features") are wonderful and are exactly what many parents prefer! So, I need to know if you decide to move in a different direction.

View on HN

Yup, after this, I would not let my 13 year old use it. I get that sometimes policies need to be updated, but when you're dealing with minors, you better find a way to protect their privacy regardless. This language that suggests privacy can be taken away at any old whim of your own choice does not fly. Especially since you've literally claimed the right to remove their right to privacy without their knowledge even while they are still using the service.

I think for the country I live in, most of this isn't even legal.

I suspect your argument would be that none of the information you keep on these minors is of the type that could be exploited. If that's the case, then the policy is extremely misguided, and says a lot that doesn't need to be said in such haphazard terms.

There is a heightened level of diligence that needs to be put into a service that caters to minors. This needs to be aligned with something that can be underwritten, or it is potentially very harmful.

I didn't look deeply at anything else on offer, because this was a full-stop right off the bat. Your policy shouts "Stranger Danger" big time. The rest looks fine and really useful, but not worth looking at under such a policy.

Thank you @pledess and @ksaj for your feedback around TOU and Privacy Policy.

The intent is to create a friendly environment for kids 13+ where their privacy is fully protected!

There is no plan to take away privacy while using the service. The verbiage will be revisited. Thanks again for this constructive feedback.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com