Does your privacy policy need
LOLs and emojis?
Ensuring it is clearly expressed.
Apparently the preparations for the nation-stopping Privacy
Awareness Week (we celebrated with cake) were not enough
to divert the Privacy Commissioner’s efforts from conducting
an audit of the privacy policies of 20 major organisations
operating in Australia.
The subjects were big players (including the big 4 banks and the likes of
Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter). The Commissioner found that 55% of the
privacy policies he audited didn’t make the grade, with the most common
issue being that they didn’t properly outline how the organisation would deal
with a privacy complaint. Some of the other problems he identified were not
outlining how an individual can access or correct their information; not
adequately describing how information was protected; and not disclosing
whether information would be disclosed overseas and to which countries.
Justin Cudmore
Partner
+61 2 8216 3015
[email protected]
One of the other shortcomings was a failure to provide a privacy policy
which was ‘clearly expressed’. We reckon that’s a pretty difficult case for
the Commissioner to objectively demonstrate, but he has given it a go, using
measures such as the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Yes, it’s a thing. The
result gives you a score which equals the number of years of education the
reader needs to be able to understand your policy (and apparently the
Commissioner thinks the average 14 year old should be the benchmark).
It looks like this:
Level = 0.39 (total words/total sentences) + 11.8 (total syllables/total
words) – 15.59
Seriously? We’re all for Plain English, but this just takes the fun out of it.
We’ve run some tests, and the way to score well is to use only one syllable
words, and ideally one word sentences. To get the 14 year olds in we
suggest throwing in some hashtags and a YOLO or two.
How does your privacy policy score? Check it out here. (This article
achieved a respectable 9.4.)
James True
Lawyer
+61 2 8216 3087
[email protected]
Marque Lawyers Pty Ltd
Level 4, 343 George St
Sydney NSW 2000
Questions? Give us a call.
Ph: +61 2 8216 3000
Fax: + 61 2 8216 3001
www.marquelawyers.com.au
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