The point of this visualizer is to help people learn how to read privacy policies. These walls of text are designed to be awful to look at, and it is ultimately why I believe most people do not read them. So, rather than repeating myself over and over again by just telling people to read the policies, I thought I’d offer a new tool to help visualize things. For each category, I showcase items that would be listed in a privacy policy, as well as details as to what they might be wanting that for, and some of the benefits and consequences of that item being collected. I will also be including search terms that you can utilize to help skim a privacy policy, in case you just want a quick glance to see if a company does collect or use a certain data type.
This guide was heavily based on Apple’s developer documentation on their App Store privacy guidelines. I went with this as a base because it’s a really solid foundation in understanding what these things are, and given that (in the USA), the iPhone is the most popular phone, I thought it would make sense to use language and visuals that Apple already provides. Here are the resources to Apple’s resources if you want additional context:
Apple Developer App Privacy Guidelines: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/app-privacy-details/
Apple Developer Additional Insights for Data Usage: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/user-privacy-and-data-use/