Have You Read Your Privacy Policy?

If you’re like most people, you probably haven’t read a word of the many privacy policies encountered online. And, as TRUST researcher Alessandro Acquisti argues, that’s not a good thing if you want to protect your personal data. Acquisti and other researchers at Carnegie Mellon are using their research on privacy and technology as evidence to recommend implementation of a federal consumer privacy bill of rights.

Researchers found that current technological advances are outpacing written privacy policies, leading to inadequate protection against the latest threats. Privacy "approaches that rely exclusively on informing or 'empowering' the individual are unlikely to provide adequate protection against the risks posed by recent information technologies," CMU’s Alessandro Acquisti, Laura Brandimarte and George Loewenstein wrote.