[HN Gopher] The Bulletproof Glass Effect: Unintended Consequence...
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       The Bulletproof Glass Effect: Unintended Consequences of Privacy
       Notices
        
       Author : behnamoh
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2022-10-08 17:20 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (journals.sagepub.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (journals.sagepub.com)
        
       | epicureanideal wrote:
       | Startup idea: a policy policy provider with a set of standard
       | terms, or pro version for more money where it evaluates and
       | grades and verifies the absence of anything crazy or unexpected
       | in a custom privacy policy.
        
       | teeray wrote:
       | Privacy Policies are as useless as cookie banners. Companies feed
       | you page after page of confusing legalese so you give up and
       | click "I accept." There should be a simplified plain-language
       | form created by the FTC with checkboxes---check off any
       | statements that are true about your company's privacy practices.
       | Then they could be easily understood and compared.
        
       | JadeNB wrote:
       | You can probably guess at the meaning, but here's an excerpt from
       | the abstract defining "the bulletproof-glass effect" and its
       | relevance:
       | 
       | > A privacy notice, by placing legally enforceable limits on a
       | firm's data practices, communicating safeguards, and signaling
       | transparency, might be expected to promote confidence that
       | personal data will not be misused. Indeed, most managers expected
       | a privacy notice to make customers feel more secure (Study 1).
       | Yet, consistent with the analogy that bulletproof glass can
       | increase feelings of vulnerability despite the protection
       | offered, formal privacy notices undermined consumer trust and
       | decreased purchase interest even when they emphasized objective
       | protection (Studies 2, 3, and 5) or omitted any mention of
       | potentially concerning data practices (Study 6).
        
       | cassonmars wrote:
       | There's a tremendous situational irony with the massive cookie
       | notice at the bottom of the screen when this loads.
        
         | abruzzi wrote:
         | "we value your privacy" ... so here is how we are going to
         | track you.
        
           | ansgri wrote:
           | At least they have "decline all" that works.
        
           | matheusmoreira wrote:
           | We value your privacy a lot. We make money off of it after
           | all.
        
       | Quarrel wrote:
       | The actual paper courtesy of HBS:
       | 
       | https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/The%20Bulletproo...
        
         | JadeNB wrote:
         | I'm not sure why it's presented that way, but, while the page
         | itself prompts me to "Get Access", I can just click the PDF
         | overlay on the journal page to get the PDF:
         | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/002224372110690...
         | .
        
       | thayne wrote:
       | For a privacy policy to actually give me confidence in it
       | protecting my privacy it would need to:
       | 
       | 1. Be short enough that I can read it quickly (at most a couple
       | minutes)
       | 
       | 2. Be easily understandable
       | 
       | 3. Actually have meaningful protections for my privacy
       | 
       | Most privacy policies are none of those.
        
         | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
         | How does this work for you?
         | 
         | https://littlegreenviper.com/welcome-to-little-green-viper/p...
        
           | phdelightful wrote:
           | Not the parent, but I like it!
           | 
           | First sentence is unnecessary.
           | 
           | It would be better if it disallowed taking data for a legit
           | reason and then using it for another less scrupulous reason.
           | Point 5 may mitigate this concern substantially however.
        
       | nobodyandproud wrote:
       | Blame businesses.
       | 
       | I see long winded policies as cover-your-ass for the business.
       | 
       | The language and format isn't any different from EULAs and lends
       | zero confidence because I have no way of verifying misbehavior,
       | short of doing things like one-off email accounts.
       | 
       | Not dissimilar to business whistle-blower "protection" and HR's
       | mandatory "ethics" and other legal courses.
        
       | MereInterest wrote:
       | Something that wasn't mentioned in the abstract is whether the
       | privacy policies were sufficient to actually protect somebody's
       | privacy. It touches on there being no explicitly detrimental
       | practices in the studies, but doesn't state whether they actually
       | protect privacy, or merely codify existing business practices.
       | 
       | To use their metaphor of bulletproof glass, suppose a company
       | pointed a sheet of cardboard as a safety measure. Strictly
       | speaking, a bullet will be moving slower after going through the
       | cardboard, so it is t detrimental on its own. However, if a
       | company lists it as a safety measure without listing anything
       | else, I'd be more worried. Where before there was uncertainty
       | about whether their practices were sufficient, after there was
       | certainty that they are insufficient.
       | 
       | In the same way, any privacy policy that includes "We only share
       | your data with our trusted business partners." decreases my
       | overall trust. Because that is already an admission of data
       | changing hands, being used for further aggregation. Saying that
       | you'll only share data about me when provided money in a business
       | relationship is strictly better that sharing it publicly at all
       | times, but isn't sufficient to give me any comfort.
        
       | chatterhead wrote:
       | Most things in this world are the opposite of what the say...
       | 
       | The C.A.R.E.S. Act had nothing to do with caring. "Lifetime
       | warranty" has a very specific meaning. "Organic" isn't what you
       | think it means. Love. (Feel free to add your own interpretation
       | on this one ;) )
        
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       (page generated 2022-10-08 23:01 UTC)