Companies Simplify Data Privacy Notices Based On European Recommendations

In November, the Article 29 Working Party on privacy of the European Union recommended a new format for privacy notices that is more concise and focused. (See Opinion on More Harmonised Information Provisions)

According to Computerworld, the new harmonised format is making its way into the privacy policies of major US companies:

Companies Simplify Data Privacy Notices - Computerworld:

"P&G, Microsoft are in forefront of move to make Web site disclosures more user-friendly

News Story by Jaikumar Vijayan

JANUARY 10, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - A European Union initiative to develop standards for shorter and more readable data-privacy notices on Web sites is shining a spotlight on a similar need in the U.S., and large companies such as Microsoft Corp. and The Procter & Gamble Co. are already adopting the condensed format.

On its corporate Web site, P&G has created a 'privacy notice highlights' page that uses a modular format identical to the one approved by an EU panel in late November. The modular approach lets companies provide Web site visitors with capsule descriptions of their privacy policies as the initial step in the disclosure process.

Sandy Hughes, P&G's global privacy executive, said last week that the Cincinnati-based maker of consumer goods set up the new page after a survey of users who visited the Web site showed that 95% of them found shorter data privacy notices helpful.... "