Web Site Measurement Hacks

Establish a P3P Privacy Policy

The convergence of privacy concerns and widespread use of cookies necessitates a published commitment to privacy on your part. The Platform for Privacy Preferences provides an easy way to let your visitors know what data you’re collecting and how you plan on using it.

According to the World Wide Web Consortium, the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) initiative provides “a simple, automated way for users to gain more control over the use of personal information on web sites they visit.” By allowing site operators to answer a standardized set of questions covering their site’s privacy policy [Hack #26] , P3P provides a mechanism for reporting your site’s commitment to privacy so it can be compared to the visitor’s expectations. By simplifying the interface to the browser’s privacy controls via a set of predefined settings (ranging from “low” to “high” with “accept all cookies” and “block all cookies” options), P3P is helping consumers make better decisions about first- and third-party cookie acceptance.

Sounds Great, How Do I Set One Up?

Once you decide you want to set up a P3P policy—and if you haven’t already done this, you need to immediately—the rest is relatively easy and can be done in six steps.

Step one: Create a written privacy policy.

Before you can codify anything, you have to have a privacy policy [Hack #26] . Make sure you’ve carefully outlined what data you’re collecting, where you’re collecting it, what you do with that information, who ...