Know Privacy

Know Privacy is a project from UC Berkeley about users’ expectations of privacy online, and how they are actually treated.

The Project Approach:

A comparison of users’ expectations of privacy online and the data collection practices of website operators.

Goal: To identify specific practices that may be harmful or deceptive and attract the attention of government regulators.

Result: Recommendations for policymakers to protect consumers and for website operators to avoid stricter regulation.

Key Findings User Expectations and Knowledge

Users are concerned about data collection online and want greater control over their personal information. Users lack awareness of some data collection practices. Users don’t know who to complain to.

Website Practices

Websites collect and analyze data about users, but only offer partial access and control to the users. Website policies are unclear about several important issues, such as retention and data enhancement. Websites claim they do not share user data with third parties, but they do share with affiliates that users may have no relationship with. Web bug trackers are ubiquitous. Analytics and ad serving companies can track user behavior across large portions of the web.

Source: Know Privacy

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