Mozilla, makers of the Firefox web browser, has unveiled a set of badges that websites could use to show site visitors at a glance how the site manages their personal information.
The badges, or icons, were posted on the blog of Mozilla interface developer Aza Raskin last week. Five different types of icons have been developed but are not finalized yet. Each icon set deals with an aspect of managing collected personal data, and includes a positive version and a variant with a negative connotation.
For example, one of the icons ensures that personal data is never traded or sold, while the red outlined ‘negative’ counterpart indicates that it is not certain.
There is also an icon set to indicate how long collected data is stored, one that shows if information is shared with advertisers, and another that specifies how easy it is for law enforcement to obtain visitor records.
Most reputable websites provide details on what information is collected from site visitors and how they intend to use or share this information. However, privacy disclosures are typically buried in web pages with long legal documents that few visitors will read. Mozilla hopes the new icons will help highlight the different ways websites might share personal data they collect without having to dig through paragraphs of legalese.
Raskin indicates that the privacy icons could be integrated into Firefox, which would give users a warning when certain icons are missing from a website. Mozilla has not yet decided whether this functionality will be included natively in their browser or not.
A challenge for mass adoption of the new icons is that many websites purposely make specific privacy policy details hard to find or understand. Privacy policies are often disclosed only to protect the website legally, not for the benefit of the visitor. In spite of this, if enough websites adopt the “positive” privacy icons, the absence of the icons on other websites may become a warning sign to visitors. In this way, the icons may indirectly fulfill their purpose.
Nice idea. But fatally flawed…
Is someone going to verify the use of these icons?
Why should we trust these icons?
Do we trust corporate America?
Well, I don’t, and I won’t trust these goofy icons.
Mozilla would do a far more useful service to web users
if they were to develop a powerful filter that users could
engage, if they chose, to block all ad trackers, snoop cookies
and any other similar spyware garbage that impinges on
web privacy.
a step in the right direction… How/where do I register my website?
Hmm… This is all well and good but I would doubt it would be widely used.. How many times have you seen the logos for properly validated HTML and CSS webpages via W3C. And of course there are also people that would be lying and just put the logos there anyway. But seems like a good idea anyway.
That’s a great idea. It could really help the internet community to feel safe about a site IF these icons become mainstream. It would be interesting to know if the people are already that interested in protecting their privacy that the idea from your last paragraph would work.