Industry Ideals Barriers in Using Alternative Privacy Policies

Abstract

While privacy policies were developed with the aim of helping users understand their participation in the data economy, they often fail to serve this purpose. Highly complex and extensively lengthy policies have resulted in extremely low levels of user interest and engagement, leading to the users being unaware of the personal data exchange they are involved in. There is an increasing interest in industry to shift from this pattern and move towards alternative models of privacy policies that are more engaging and less intimidating to the average user. In this paper, we outline the results of an industry workshop that explores service provider views, ideals and challenges associated with the move towards alternative models of privacy policies. The results show that providing accountability and maintaining a sustainable and trustworthy customer relationship are the key drivers for this move and focusing on user-centered data practices that enables more active user participation in this scenario is the prescribed method for this shift. The call for interdisciplinary involvement to help cater to the technological, legal, regulatory and ethical demands of this move are also highlighted.