Most companies know you won’t read their 45-page privacy policy before downloading their app. I suspect they also know that their privacy policy needs to change. The problem is, when you gloss over a privacy policy, you could be giving software makers access to your personal information. Once you click the “I accept” button, your data could be theirs.
When my daughter was 10 years old, she asked to download a single-player, non-web connected game on her mobile device. Aimed at 8-12 year old children, the game required the user to accept an agreement that was illegible on a mobile phone. Looking more closely, I discovered that the app claimed the right to collect information including but not limited to my daughter’s name, profile, photos, telephone numbers, email address, contacts, GPS location, browser history and chat or messaging activity, without clearly explaining what the company did with that information or who it might share it with.
As you can imagine, I said “no” to downloading the game. However, that experience was my motivation to launch a campaign to simplify these privacy policies. At Mobile World Congress in March, I announced that AVG would produce a one-page privacy policy that is simple and transparent, and I challenged other companies to do the same. This week, out of our commitment to make the Internet safer for everyone, AVG has fulfilled on this promise with our latest privacy policy.
What’s a one-page privacy policy?
AVG’s one-page privacy policy is an at-a-glance summary of which data our company will collect or won’t collect and an explanation of how and why the data may be shared. We believe our users have the right to understand how and where their information will be used.
AVG’s users are important to us, and we want to earn and keep their trust. A simple and transparent privacy policy helps strengthen this relationship with our customers. A recent study shows that almost half of respondents (49 percent) report that lack of trust prevented them from downloading apps or using them once installed. Over a third (34 percent) said lack of trust stopped them from buying any mobile apps and services. I believe that the more consumers are clearly told the full extent to which companies collect their personal information, the less likely they will be to download new apps or software.
We see the world around us beginning to change: devices now capture new kinds of sensitive information, including health data through wearables and biometric devices and information from smart-home devices. Users must understand what companies will do with their personal information before they hit the “I agree” button. And, they should understand this clearly and at a glance, not having to read pages and pages of a privacy policy. Users have a right to control their own information, and companies have the obligation to be transparent about their company’s use of this information. Here at AVG, we’ve created a simple, one-page, graphical summary for our users of what we will and won’t do with data. I continue to challenge other companies to do the same. Let us know what you think.
