If you have ever wondered whether Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be used in privacy policy analysis, you are in the right place. We will show you how NLP is incorporated in the analysis of privacy policy in this article.

A privacy policy is a document that is mandatory for every online service, application, and website. Most countries carefully monitor and regulate the form and content of privacy policies. But, in some cases, you may discover specific policies that are not compliant with the attached product or legal regulations.

Identifying and verifying incongruent policies may be critical, but it's also tedious and time-consuming. That is why NLP is essential. But before we proceed, allow us to elaborate on why analyzing privacy policies is essential.

Is Privacy Policy Analysis Essential

In the mid-90s, more and more people began using the internet to surface the web and carry out business transactions. As a result, many concerns and questions were raised, the most important among them being the security of a user's personal data. The points that were raised concerning personal data security were not unsubstantiated. People had every right to be worried. But, in those earlier years, there was a shortage of laws and regulations covering the improper access and viewing of personal data.

1914 saw the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC'S goal at first was to monitor commerce to ensure the competition was fair. However, as the years went by, the functions of FTC have grown exponentially.

As the FTC expanded its scope and responsibilities, eventually, its jurisdiction was extended to cover the prohibition of unfair or deceptive acts or practices. That happened when the Wheeler-Lea Amendment to the Federal Trade Commission Act was passed by congress.

Once the FTC Act got amended, the Federal Trade Commission was allocated the direct responsibility of protecting consumers. It started actively involving itself with issues on consumer privacy in 1995. Since then, the FTC has been in charge of consumer privacy protection to date.

Today, every online consumer is aware of the importance of privacy policies. However, sometimes these mandatory documents fail to meet their intended purposes. Therefore, experts advise users of the internet to get tools that will help them analyze privacy policies in detail without the tedious task of going through every single sentence.

There are a few projects that try to make privacy policy analysis easier and more efficient. Top on the list is Mobile App Privacy System (MAPS).

MAPS

The FTC is adamant about dealing with any mobile apps operators that do not want to comply with established privacy policies. Non-compliance violates Section 5(a) of the FTC Act of 2014 and is therefore considered a deceptive or unfair act or practice that is in or affects commerce.

The MAPS project was introduced to ensure all policies are compliant with American law and its application. One of the advantages of this project is that it is cheaper and faster because it can identify potential issues autonomously.

MAPS uses natural language analysis in conjunction with NLP to isolate potential incompatibilities in privacy policies.

NLP in Privacy Policy Analysis

Today, machine- learning and classification has enabled NLP algorithm to read any specific privacy policy automatically. The algorithm also tells a user in clear and concise terms what they agree to by ticking a privacy policy checkbox. To be on the safe side, employ natural language processing to help you understand privacy policies. And it goes without saying, never agree to policies that are unclear or ambiguous.

To Sum Up

The analysis of privacy policy is critical for every internet user. If you want to be safer, ensure you clearly understand the implications of ticking the “I Agree to Privacy Policy” box that can be found on any website. Professionals at Advanced Data Analytix are extensively trained and equipped to deal with two technologies that can automate and simplify privacy policy: machine- learning and NLP. If you need an expert to guide you through machine- learning or NLP, don't hesitate to Contact Us.