The readers' editor on… the Guardian website's new data privacy policy
When privacy is mentioned there is a tendency to focus on the kind that Max Mosley successfully argued had been breached when he won £60,000 from the News of the World, which had falsely accused him of taking part in a "sick Nazi orgy".
Most of us don't have that kind of problem too often. However, anyone who uses the internet regularly sends a great deal of data out there every day. It's an important part of our compact with the readers that they should know how the Guardian stores, uses and transfers the data it receives. That's why the Guardian has updated its data privacy policy.
The data is important to the Guardian because it tells us a great deal about our customers just through the details it provides. And as the privacy policy, a link to which can be found at the foot of every page on the site, makes clear we also use aspects of the data to increase revenues.
The types of advertising that the Guardian runs is often a cause for friction with readers, as shown by this year's annual survey of 4,660 readers, which will be published on our Sustainability site. According to the survey, 53% of print readers oppose advertising for fashion brands that rely on cheap foreign labour. The most disliked form of advert is for music with offensive lyrics that includes homophobic or sexist material. Interestingly, online readers strongly object to religious and political advertisements.
There are other ethical reasons for turning down advertisements. The Guardian dropped advertisements for sex chatlines from The Guide nearly a decade ago. When News International's apology was published on 16 July, the Guardian announced it would give to charity the revenue from the advertisement (I hope to write about phone hacking at some point in the future, but not while events are still unfolding at the breakneck speed of recent weeks).
Advertising can be a service to readers, and the revenue is a crucial part of the commercial model that enables the Guardian to produce its journalism. It is important to state frankly that we need to increase those revenues on the web – so a transparent privacy policy matters.
One of the major factors in revising our privacy guidelines has been the advent of a new law that requires consent from a website's user before "cookies" can be stored on their computer. Cookies are small text files retained by web browser programs. Websites can read and write these files, allowing them to store things like personalisation details or user preferences. They provide a "memory" for the website, enabling it to recognise a user.
The law came into force in May, but the information commissioner has given organisations a year to revise their privacy codes. It's been almost two years since we released the last version of our privacy policy for guardian.co.uk, and there are other reasons for changing it. The old policy required the explicit permission of users to share data, although this wasn't required by law. As web services have changed, the Guardian can no longer commit itself to that.
The law – enshrined in principle eight of the Data Protection Act – states that organisations must inform people if they wish to transfer any of their data outside the European Economic Area. The Guardian works with third parties in the US and India to help with digital delivery. The new policy sets out how Guardian News & Media uses the personal data that is collected on the website, whether provided through registration for guardian.co.uk or when subscribing to Guardian News & Media services available through the site.
As well as providing information about how personal data is used, the policy contains information on the Guardian's use of cookies and online behavioural advertising, a method of delivering advertisements based on the type of content that is being viewed. It also tells readers how they can select their preferences. As before, consent will always be obtained to use personal data for marketing purposes.
The next step will be to send details of the new guidelines to all users for whom we have an email address; there are millions of these, so it can't be done in one go. It is quite a task, but it will give as many readers as possible a chance to comment on the new privacy policy.
• This article will be open to comments from 9am on Monday
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/24/open-door-cookies-data-privacy
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