[Infowarrior] - Facebook Tries to Simplify Privacy Policy

[Richard Forno]

	• TECHNOLOGY
	• FEBRUARY 25, 2011, 5:00 P.M. ET
Facebook Tries to Simplify Privacy Policy


By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

In an effort to take some of the legalese out of a legal document, Facebook Inc. unveiled a new draft of its closely watched privacy policy.

The new policy doesn't change the social network's data-handling practices, said Edward Palmieri, a privacy and product counsel at Facebook. Rather, the goal was to "apply the Facebook design experience that we bring to everything we do and  extend that to our privacy policy."

In place of an existing document that Facebook admitted was "longer than the U.S. constitution – without the amendments," the draft policy contains chunks of information organized around more practical headings such as "Your information and how it is used" and "how advertising works."

"We struggle with really hitting home to users that we do not sell their data to advertisers," said Mr. Palmieri, so the new policy includes screen shots that show what advertisers see about Facebook users.

Privacy policies are often written by lawyers in notoriously vague language to provide companies legal cover for required notice about user data that's required by the Federal Trade Commission and other regulatory bodies. But in a recent report, the FTC noted that it was difficult for the average person to understand privacy policies – and that many people assume that just because a company has one, their privacy is being protected.

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