How to hide privacy violations in a privacy disclosure statement

Date:December 27, 2003 / year-entry #180
Tags:non-computer;reading-the-fine-print
Orig Link:https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20031227-00/?p=41323
Comments:    6
Summary:I'm looking over my Fidelity privacy disclosure statement, titled "Our commitment to privacy". Google is amazing: It found a copy online: Our Commitment to Privacy. Scroll down to How and Why We Obtain Personal Information, fourth bullet point: Information services and consumer reporting agencies (for example, to verify your identity, to assess your creditworthiness or...

I'm looking over my Fidelity privacy disclosure statement, titled "Our commitment to privacy". Google is amazing: It found a copy online: Our Commitment to Privacy. Scroll down to How and Why We Obtain Personal Information, fourth bullet point:

  • Information services and consumer reporting agencies (for example, to verify your identity, to assess your creditworthiness or to better understand your product and service needs)

(Italics added.) The italicized phrase translates as "We will collect personal information in order to try to sell you stuff".

Okay, now look at How We Protect Your Information. The second bullet point describes the people they will disclose your personal information to:

  • Unaffiliated service providers (for example, ...)

Notice that the parenthetical says "for example" and not "restricted to". So their privacy statement that they may disclose your information to any unaffiliated service provider, which basically translates to "everybody".

So their so-called commitment to privacy actually permits them to collect information from anywhere and give it to anybody. The people who wrote this clearly learned the same lesson I learned from the BBC series Yes, (Prime) Minister: Put the hard part in the title. If the title claims to be demonstrating your commitment to privacy, you can violate it all you want in the body.


Comments (6)
  1. Dave says:

    aww. that is too bad. are you going to litigate?

  2. Yes, sometimes it is really funny. I would actually say the person calling this a "Commitment to privacy" was very humorous.

  3. Yes, this is indeed very funny, another nice snippet from the so called commitment to privacy: "…we restrict access to personal information to those who require it to provide products and services to you…"

  4. Joel Spolsky says:

    And the small print taketh away

  5. Marketing writes the big print; lawyers write the small print.

  6. The FDA rats them out.

Comments are closed.


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