Privacy is the New User Experience Best Practice – Part Two (OPPA)

Privacy is the New User Best Practice – Part Two

Check out California!

Have you heard of the California Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)? It’s making the rounds! The legal counsel of two clients have asked for some clarification in the last few days. It’s hot. Here’s a brief, brief synopsis from mondac.com:

Companies whose privacy policies do not yet address how they respond to Do Not Track signals from browsers now must update their online privacy policies to comply with a new amendment ( AB370) to the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) if they collect personal information from California residents.

. . a Web site operator is required to disclose in its privacy policy:
1. How the operator responds to Do Not Track signals or other mechanisms that provide consumer choice about tracking. This disclosure can be satisfied by providing a hyperlink to a program or protocol (such as an industry self-regulatory group protocol) the operator follows that offers the consumer choice.
2. Disclose whether other parties may collect personally identifiable information about an individual consumer’s online activities over time and across different Web sites when a consumer uses the operator’s Web site or service. The California Attorney General interprets the existing CalOPPA requirements as pertaining to mobile applications as well as to traditional Web sites. It remains to be seen how the new provisions will be applied in the mobile space.

Nice. Sounds ominous, right?

As I reported on a few months ago, Privacy is the New User Experience Best Practice.

In sales and marketing, the old adage was “buyer beware”. Caveat emptor, right? We set up protections to cover the unsuspecting buyer from predatory or manipulative selling practices.

Daniel Pink in his new book, To Sell Is Human, suggests that this condition was the result of the buyer not having the same information as the seller. Well, amigos, the world is rapidly changing. Has it become “caveat venditor”?

I think so. And I’m not the only one.

It’s a wonderful time to be a consumer. Believe it or not, I think it’s a wonderful time to be a seller too. With all the information at your fingertips there’s never been a better time to help your clients focus on making a good decision.

Update your privacy policies! Get ready for OPPA! (ouzo joke in there somewhere. . .)

Good stuff.