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Comment by shiranaihito | Hacker News Reader

Your privacy page feels really shady to me.

WebBeacons (also referred to as GIF files, pixels or action tags) help Stormweight System Inc recognize a unique cookie on your browser. We use this tool to compile aggregate information about you, and it is not personally identifiable. This information includes IP addresses, search terms, domain names, and browser types. We use this information to track usage and other patterns on our Websites. We may share this aggregate information with our partners or service providers.

"WebBeacons"? -I knew "GIF files" as "images". And an IP-address is not personally identifiable? Right, as long as your ISP is not forced to personally identify you. How do you track an users's search terms with your WebBeacons?

I'd recommend talking to your users like a normal person, not in vague half-legalese.

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Truth be told, we thought it looked weird, too. We don't use "webBeacons" or anything weird; just cookies. Google drops a few cookies for analytics, too, but that's it.

I'm going to go over the privacy policy today and make it reflect the reality that privacy, security, and ethical business practices are at our essence.

Since you read privacy policies closer than we do, could you recommend a good examplar of a friendly, non-legalese privacy policy?

Thanks for the feedback!

[Edit] I removed the weird WebBeacons reference, simplified the language, and added an additional message at the top. Does it feel less shady?

You thought it looked weird too? :) Does that mean it's just a copy & paste from somewhere else?

It's better now, of course, but it still feels like too much text.

Without prejudice to your rights under applicable data protection or privacy law, Stormweight Systems Inc may amend this Privacy Policy from time-to-time. We will notify you of such amendments or changes by updating the Last Updated date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You will notify me by updating a date on your website? Sounds a bit passive for a "notification" :)

The problem with legalese is that it never really tells a normal person anything. It's an impenetrable wall of text which no one wants to read, but possibly should, in case it contains some outrageous evil to which you'd end up agreeing.

That's why I want to avoid it when I get my own stuff out there. Since I'm not planning to do anything evil, I don't need to distract & confuse anyone with legalese.

And since I don't live in the US, I don't have to use legalese to cover my ass from ridiculous lawsuits either :p

Sorry, forgot to comment..

> Since you read privacy policies closer than we do, could you recommend a good examplar of a friendly, non-legalese privacy policy?

Actually I just happened to feel like checking yours out. I'm afraid I haven't got any privacy policy to link to, but as I mentioned earlier, I'd try to make things as simple as possible.

Something like:

We only have whatever data you give us, and we only use it for this website's functionality - nothing else.

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