Collecting data from visitors through web forms immediately raises issues of pri
ID: 421315 • Letter: C
Question
Collecting data from visitors through web forms immediately raises issues of privacy and security. Find an example of a site that collects visitor information via a web form, and review the data items on the form. Do you consider any of these to be private? Review the site’s terms of use and privacy policy, if any. Are these clear and easily understood, or are they written in legalese? What can you determine about how the site handles visitors’ private information? Would you be comfortable submitting your information to the site? Why or why not?
Explanation / Answer
There are various news sites such as online.WSJ (the Wall Street Journal) and business standard (business-standard.com) do have a subscription policy wherein only those readers who signup for their subscriptions can view the complete news item. For subscription, one needs to provide their e-mail id, contact details and also if one is subscribing to the paid content, then credit card details also have to be shared. Some of the items which are asked such as credit card and email id are definitely private matter and could lead to spam e-mails or fraud in case the data is compromised.
The sites mentioned above have a robust data privacy policy which is also presented to users. The policy wording is a combination of legal terminology and plain English which is not very difficult to understand for a layman but the policy is quite long and exhaustive and it may be difficult for a person to go through the entire policy and understand each nuance in a short period of time.
As per the policy, the site states that the visitor and subscriber information are stored in secured databases and that the details shared won't be available to others and also they won't spam the inboxes. Thus considering the statements made and keeping in view their brand reputation, I feel that information is protected and user data is secured with them. I would be comfortable in sharing information as I trust the brand and feel that the privacy policy clearly lays down that they won't be indulging in any malpractice with user data and am assured about confidential data being protected.