Federal Privacy Commissioner Issues Results Of Online Privacy Policy Sweep

In August, Canada's Privacy Commissioner released results of an international sweep of online privacy policies for more than 2,000 websites and apps conducted with other global data protection authorities. The review was intended to replicate consumer experience by checking performance against a set of common indicators.  The sweep found examples of good, transparent privacy policies, which were uncluttered and straightforward. However, many websites had privacy policies that were either too brief or overly long and legalistic. About 10% of sites reviewed did not appear to have a privacy policy at all. Further, about 20% of sites reviewed had either no privacy contact or privacy contact information that was not easy to access.