User agents for matching privacy policies with user preferences

Abstract

Privacy policies are commonly used by service providers to state how personal data obtained from users will be handled. However, the complexity and sheer length of such policies make them incomprehensible to the common web user. This paper surveys user agents that automatically fetch and compare privacy policies with privacy preferences, in order to help the end-user understand the implications of personal data disclosure. We discuss why previous efforts have experienced only moderate success, identify the main areas of improvement and point out directions for future work.