Effective Online Privacy Policies

Online privacy policies are important mechanisms for informing web site users about the level of information privacy protection afforded when visiting web sites. To date, societal mechanisms and technologies have been the focus of attempts to improve the quality and effectiveness of online privacy policies. Little attention, however, has been given to the development and use of organisational measures for this purpose. In this paper we present findings from an empirical study of online privacy policies, resulting in a set of organisational guidelines for effective online privacy policies, which extend the research base in this area and, more immediately, will assist companies concerned about the impact of privacy concerns on consumer web usage.