Essay Sample on Privacy Policy: Understanding How Your Data is Protected

The information privacy policy is understood as a statement disclosing various means through which a particular party is expected to treat its clients' data. Personal information can be used to retrieve an individual's identity and is not limited to his or her name and contact information. The information privacy policy helps inform the client on how their information is collected and whether it will be shared with other parties or whether it will be kept confidential within the organization. The information privacy policy can be used in a more generalized manner than the data use statements that are much more specific. It is, therefore, important to consider the effectiveness of the information privacy policy within the parties involved.

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The Data Protection Directive has already been implemented by the European Union to its member states hence guiding most organizations that intend to operate their businesses in such states. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), established by the Fair Information Principles, provides the nations with the non-binding governing principles used in commercializing personal information (Jai & King, 2016). Such a policy provides guidelines expected to be followed while developing concerns about how the privacy policy should be drafted. However, the nation lacks specific federal regulations that are used in the establishment of the privacy policy.

The client's information is aimed at being collected and disclosed only when it is required in the management of their accounts. Information collected is usually treated with much confidentiality. At the same time, it is used only for the intention that it was collected for not that is only limited to incidences where the client has not agreed that their information can be shared with a third party. Organizations are only required to collect tow forms of information through their website, which includes personal information and non-personal information. The information privacy policy is not required to collect either using such forms of information since the applicable privacy law does not limit them.

There are various functions through which the information collected should be used. One such use should be for registration where the personal information collected should contain the client's name, and none of such information used for the registration of a specific website should be shared with any other party. The information can also be collected for transactional notifications where the client receives notifications in case of any changes in the website and should be indicated in the terms and conditions of the privacy policy. The information collected for statistics on any specific website should be kept confidential.

The Internet Content Rating Association can be used by various websites in defining their information privacy policies. The association assists in allowing the internet users in such specific websites to access only the practices that are allowed within the website and the practices that are in line with the privacy setting of the internet user. Nevertheless, such technical solutions cannot be used to argue that the websites are following the indicated privacy policies. The rules and regulations require the websites to inform the users about the browser privacy settings. The automation of such privacy policies is not yet well known by both the websites and the users.

Organizations and other parties should implement all the necessary safeguards that ensure proper protection of their personal information. The implemented measures should ensure that the information is not transferred to any third party without their permission. Such parties should regularly employ another party to improve the privacy status of their websites. Such parties that have been hired to improve the privacy status of the websites should be limited to the personal information they are allowed to access. Legal measures should be taken in incidences where an individual violates the privacy policies. Personal information should only be disclosed only when the parties are in good faith. Such disclosure is according to the law.

Retention of personal information should only be done in incidences where it is necessary. It is a requirement of the law for such information to be retained. Retention of personal information should only not occur when there is a termination of the relationship between the client and the specific organization. Retention of personal information, in most cases, is done to prevent any future incidences of abuse and only for legitimate operations. The retention of all personal information should only be conducted based on the terms of the privacy policy (Wang et al., 2016). The technological constraints may not allow a party to access an individual's information after the retention of information is over.

The clients have the right to request access to their personal information to confirm whether such information has been collected correctly. Once the party receives the request for access in the personal information, the client has the right to receive the information but under particular circumstances. The client should be provided with the reasons for the denial of accessing such information. The organization has the responsibility of dealing with all requests in a timely manner. The organization should strive to ensure that personal information is accurate and up-to-date. Mechanisms should be provided to the clients to add any necessary personal data to the already existing information and delete unnecessary personal information.

However, various critics continue to affect the efficiency and legitimacy of the privacy policies concerning the type of information that can be accessed on the internet. Report concerning the information privacy concluded that the majority of the websites included in the study had privacy disclosure. The majority of such websites did not meet the requirements set by the FTC principles (Choi et al., 2019). It is as well question whether the organizations are helping their clients to understand the privacy policies and whether they are assisting them the make much more informed decisions. The visual designs of a website greatly influence how the clients perceive their privacy policy, especially when they are accessing their credibility. The study showed that the clients are much willing to operate on websites where their privacy is guaranteed, and they are also willing to add some more charges for the security of their personal information. Most of the clients think that as long as a website has a privacy policy, then it means that it will not share their personal information.

References

Choi, J. P., Jeon, D. S., & Kim, B. C. (2019). Privacy and personal data collection with information externalities. Journal of Public Economics, 173, 113-124. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272719300131

Jai, T. M. C., & King, N. J. (2016). Privacy versus reward: Do loyalty programs increase consumers' willingness to share personal information with third-party advertisers and data brokers?. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 28, 296-303. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698915000065

Wang, T., Duong, T. D., & Chen, C. C. (2016). Intention to disclose personal information via mobile applications: A privacy calculus perspective. International journal of information management, 36(4), 531-542. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401215300797