I wanted to mark my return to the Anatomy of a Website series by talking about an issue that is potentially of interest to both the techies and the political aficionados: your privacy online. Nearly every website you visit nowadays wants some of your information. It could be as little information as your browser type for statistics if you run a basic small business website, or as much as your entire credit history if you’re applying for a mortgage. As a user, you have to make sure that your information is going to the right people, and that you’re not giving up too much of it. As someone creating said websites, you have to balance the amount of information you need with the amount of information you could potentially want. It can be a tough balancing act sometimes.
When building a website, one of the first things you should need to know is how much information you need to collect from visitors. In the case of the site I’ve been building, I don’t need to know much. The submitted entries are anonymous, so I don’t need to know anybody’s name. I could collect an e-mail address, but that’s not really necessary either. It’s good for me since I can write a real quick privacy policy basically stating what I do with the little bit of information (their story) they give me.
This site is a not like your average corporate marketing site or online store though. On your average site like that, those running the site would like as much information as they can about you, whether it be to recommend products, get a salesperson in touch with you, or to send out the order you just made. For sites like that, a privacy policy is even more important. People have to trust you if they are to give you money directly.
I encourage all readers to review the privacy policy of a site the next time you think of it. You might be surprised at what people tell you they collect, or about what they don’t tell you they collect. I especially encourage web designers to do so, and to come up with a privacy policy for your site, if applicable. Anything you can do to earn the trust of your visitors is a good thing.
{ 2 comments }
David Nick 02.23.05 at 10:10 pm
Great topic. It’s one of the reasons I have multiple email addresses, and why I get extremely nervous when congress start talking about making it a criminal offense to hide who you are when you fill out forms on websites. one of the great things about being an early internet user was that the net was a wonderful place to be anonymous. That isn’t so any more.
I fondly remember when I was selling website work to companies before the internet was the place to be, one corporate exec said to me that the “Internet is a fad, why do I need to spend money on having a website when I can run print media.”
Fad indeed, but so is your privacy.
David Nick 02.23.05 at 11:10 pm
Great topic. It’s one of the reasons I have multiple email addresses, and why I get extremely nervous when congress start talking about making it a criminal offense to hide who you are when you fill out forms on websites. one of the great things about being an early internet user was that the net was a wonderful place to be anonymous. That isn’t so any more.
I fondly remember when I was selling website work to companies before the internet was the place to be, one corporate exec said to me that the “Internet is a fad, why do I need to spend money on having a website when I can run print media.”
Fad indeed, but so is your privacy.
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