Although privacy policies are meant to protect end-users, they are typically written in a way that protects the entities responsible for creating and sharing products. These policies have a lot of technical and legal information that is written at a college reading level, even though the average person reads at a middle school level. The content is often modeled after existing commercial products, which might contain terms that are not best practice or are difficult for smaller-scale entities to follow. Policies are usually hidden at the bottom of a web page and information that is relevant or actionable to the end-user is not easily visible.

Privacy policies that are difficult to find, read, and understand can cause end-users to feel overwhelmed by the information and as though they have no control over their privacy.

Privacy policies that are written in plain language can help end-users at all reading levels understand how their data is handled. Visually emphasizing how the policy content relates to the end-user, presenting this content in a logical flow, and showing what step-by-step actions they can take if they have concerns, will give end-users more agency over how their data is used. Having these simplified materials also ensures apps and websites comply with ethical review board requirements, federal regulations, and international privacy laws.