READABILITY AND CONTENT COMPARISONS OF BUSINESS NEWS WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICIES

Gundars Kaupins
Boise State University
Mark Johnson
Idaho State University
ABSTRACT
This study compares the readability and content of the privacy policies among the top ten business news websites in the United States. Based on the average of six indices, the privacy policies are at the college freshman reading level that is higher than the average adult 9 th grade reading level. Based on a content analysis, the privacy policies discuss what user information is collected, the purpose of collecting the information, how user information is analyzed and shared with third parties, and what restrictions are placed on data use. The policies vary regarding communication with third parties, collecting information using cookies and beacons, and analyzing user data to improve services.

The results of this study revealed that while the Yahoo Finance privacy policy was the easiest to read, the Financial Times policy was the hardest. It also was found that the Wall Street Journal has the lengthiest privacy policy while the Business Insider has the shortest.