Privacynq Brief Eases Consumer Privacy Concerns for IoT Products
New standard for easy-to-understand privacy and security disclosures builds consumers’ digital trust in IoT products
YORK, Pa. – September 21, 2015 – Today PrivacyCheq (www.PrivacyCheq.com) announced the immediate availability of Privacynq, a new service enabling manufacturers of Internet of Things (IoT) devices to easily and effectively disclose privacy and security practices to consumers of their products.
Until today, it has been very difficult for consumers purchasing IoT sensors to wear or place in their homes to know where the massive amounts of captured data was being stored, where it was shared, and what (if any) precautions were being taken to protect it. At the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show and numerous other speeches, the Federal Trade Commission has urged the IoT industry to self regulate and ‘design for privacy’ by giving users a clear understanding of the privacy and security aspects of their products.
The Privacynq service provides an elegant solution to this IoT “privacy vacuum”, enabling manufacturers to easily deliver consumers a condensed privacy and security report called a “Privacynq Brief.” The Privacynq Brief gives concise, understandable answers to the best questions that a privacy and security expert would ask when considering the purchase and use of an IoT product, such as “How do I benefit from this data being captured?”, “What is captured?”, “Who is my data shared with?”, ”How is it secured?” and “How will you notify me if a breach occurs?”
To help consumers make informed purchasing decisions, Privacynq Briefs can be easily viewed on any smartphone while shopping in stores, on a desktop PC while browsing e-commerce sites, and even from an IoT product’s mobile ‘dashboard’ app. Unlike paper or static web notices, the Privacynq Brief is an always current “live” online document, tracking any changes in the product’s privacy and security policies whenever it is viewed.
“While the 2015 Pew privacy survey showed that 91% of consumers feel their privacy is ‘out of control’, consumer IoT manufacturers have so far missed a great opportunity to impress consumers by being forthright and open about privacy and security,” said Roy Smith, PrivacyCheq’s CEO and founder.
“We created the Privacynq Brief to give the emerging IoT industry an easy way to delight users by delivering clarity on privacy and security, as recommended by the FTC. What we are doing for the IoT market with this disclosure is analogous to the ‘Nutrition Facts’ labels on packaged food that show important dietary and ingredient information, allowing shoppers to make informed decisions. This type of standard disclosure is critical to build consumer trust in IoT products as they become more and more integrated into our daily lives.”
A sample IoT Privacynq Brief can be viewed on any mobile or desktop device at http://tinyurl.com/privacynq. The Privacynq service is available immediately with a free 30-day trial at www.privacynq.com. Discounted pricing is available for IoT incubators and startups, and the service is free to students and educational institutions.
SCREENSHOTS OF THE PRIVACYNQ BRIEF ARE AVAILABLE AT http://PrivacyCheq.mobilitypr.com
About PrivacyCheq
PrivacyCheq leads the industry with innovative privacy enhancing technology (PET) solutions covering mobile, desktop and IoT devices, providing cloud-based privacy disclosure, regulatory & legal compliance services to a worldwide audience of mobile app and game publishers, website operators, and consumer products manufacturers. The company’s Privacynq service delivers consumer-friendly privacy and security notices for IoT products. The company offers a variety of other services to deliver COPPA compliance, TOS, EULA and Privacy Policies, CFPB Regulation P and Euro GDPR compliant privacy notices to mobile users on any device or operating system. For more information visit http://www.PrivacyCheq.com.
