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An extended investigation of the similarity between privacy policies of social networking sites as a precursor for standardization

An extended investigation of the similarity between privacy policies of social networking sites as a precursor for standardization
An extended investigation of the similarity between privacy policies of social networking sites as a precursor for standardization
Privacy policies are unsatisfactory in communicating information to users. Social networking sites (SNS) exemplify this, attracting growing concerns regarding their use of personal data, whilst lacking incentives to improve their policies. Standardization addresses many of these issues, but is only possible if policies share attributes that can be standardized. This investigation assessed the similarity of two attributes (the clauses and the coverage of forty recommendations made by the UK Information Commissioner) between the privacy policies of the six most frequently visited SNS globally. Similarity was also investigated by looking at whether any recommendations were not addressed by all SNS and if there were any themes of information discussed in the policies, but not included in the ICO Code. We found that similarity in the clauses was low, yet similarity in the recommendations covered was high. This indicates that SNS use different clauses, but to convey similar information. There were a number of recommendations which none of the SNS addressed. There were also four themes of information which all six SNS addressed, which were not recommended in the ICO Code. This paper proposes the policies of SNS already share attributes, indicating the feasibility of standardization at a thematic level currently. Five recommendations are made to begin facilitating this.
31-44
Cradock, Emma
e87236fe-f425-4162-977d-5a3f9065ea71
Millard, David
4f19bca5-80dc-4533-a101-89a5a0e3b372
Stalla-Bourdillon, Sophie
c189651b-9ed3-49f6-bf37-25a47c487164
Cradock, Emma
e87236fe-f425-4162-977d-5a3f9065ea71
Millard, David
4f19bca5-80dc-4533-a101-89a5a0e3b372
Stalla-Bourdillon, Sophie
c189651b-9ed3-49f6-bf37-25a47c487164

Cradock, Emma, Millard, David and Stalla-Bourdillon, Sophie (2016) An extended investigation of the similarity between privacy policies of social networking sites as a precursor for standardization. The Journal of Web Science, 2 (3), 31-44. (doi:10.1561/106.00000006).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Privacy policies are unsatisfactory in communicating information to users. Social networking sites (SNS) exemplify this, attracting growing concerns regarding their use of personal data, whilst lacking incentives to improve their policies. Standardization addresses many of these issues, but is only possible if policies share attributes that can be standardized. This investigation assessed the similarity of two attributes (the clauses and the coverage of forty recommendations made by the UK Information Commissioner) between the privacy policies of the six most frequently visited SNS globally. Similarity was also investigated by looking at whether any recommendations were not addressed by all SNS and if there were any themes of information discussed in the policies, but not included in the ICO Code. We found that similarity in the clauses was low, yet similarity in the recommendations covered was high. This indicates that SNS use different clauses, but to convey similar information. There were a number of recommendations which none of the SNS addressed. There were also four themes of information which all six SNS addressed, which were not recommended in the ICO Code. This paper proposes the policies of SNS already share attributes, indicating the feasibility of standardization at a thematic level currently. Five recommendations are made to begin facilitating this.

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Published date: 9 August 2016
Organisations: Faculty of Business, Law and Art

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 405594
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/405594
PURE UUID: 0bc847a4-d113-4651-88a4-f410da5db3a8
ORCID for David Millard: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-2710
ORCID for Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3715-1219

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Date deposited: 08 Feb 2017 11:19
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:05

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Contributors

Author: Emma Cradock
Author: David Millard ORCID iD

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