Big Tech’s Shift to Privacy

Privacy is top-of-mind for technology companies and their consumers. Since Facebook’s data-sharing practices came under scrutiny following reporting on Cambridge Analytica, consumers and legislators have sharpened their interest in big tech’s use of data. In response, many companies continue to review, refine, and clarify their data practices for the benefit of consumers. Some of that clarification comes in the form of prominent public statements from CEOs or published op-eds, dedicated privacy sessions during developer conferences, and marketing-style promotion of privacy as a product feature.

To understand how companies are messaging their approach to privacy to consumers, the IAPP reviewed consumer-facing privacy webpages, prominent publications, public statements by CEOs, and general promotional materials of the tech industry’s main consumer-facing players (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple; see the note at the bottom of the page for a comment on Amazon). The goal was to summarize how each company is expressing its view of privacy to consumers. This review was not an assessment and comparison of each company’s privacy notice and associated disclosures, its focus was on each company’s promotional efforts to communicate its approach to privacy to consumers—i.e., how each company expresses privacy. The omission of a value or privacy strategy from one company’s column does not indicate that the company does not hold that value or practice that strategy, instead, it is indicative of the fact that the company chooses to emphasize different elements of its approach to privacy. For example, all the companies express a commitment to encryption, but Facebook and Apple make it a more prominent element of their consumer-facing privacy communication than the others.