Visual interactive privacy policy: The beter choice?

Abstract

Online privacy policies should enable users to make informed de-cisions. Current text policies, however, lack usability: users often miss crucial information and consent to them without reading. Vi-sual representation formats may increase comprehension, but are rarely used in practice. In an iterative design process we gathered qualitative feedback on typical policy contents and on existing and newly designed representation formats. We developed design guidelines and a Visual Interactive Privacy Policy based on the Privacy Policy Nutrition Label enriched with control options and further interactive elements. In an empirical evaluation, both visual representations received higher ratings of attractiveness, stimula-tion, novelty and transparency compared to a standard policy long text. Interactivity improved time spent with the policy. There were no efects on conversion rate, perceived control or perceived trust, efciency and perspicuity. More research is needed, especially with regard to the cost-beneft ratio of visual privacy policies.