I found this poking around W3C:
http://www.w3.org/P3P/validator.html

I didn't know there was such a thing as a privacy policy validator, so was thinking about using one of these:

http://www.codeinfusion.com/p3pedit/
http://www.privacybot.com/

Has anyone used one of these, or something similar? Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks!
jGirlyGirl1

I must be out of my depth here, because I'm confused. A privacy policy is a business policy, not a technical component...right? If so, how the heck do they "validate" a privacy policy?

The only way I can imagine them "validating the policy" is to try hacking into your customer database -or- email the site offering $5/record for a copy of the customer db.

Maybe they just validate whether or not the site leaves cookies or spyware on the customer's pc.

I'm with you, I'd never heard of this...and I have no clue what its all about.

Ed

I know, it's very odd but interesting...

Here's some more links:
http://www.p3pwriter.com/Privacy_Policy_FAQ.asp
http://www.techarch.state.ar.us/domains/in..._guidelines.doc

Here are some sites that are P3P "compliant"
http://www.w3.org/P3P/compliant_sites

If I can do it, I'd like to...

Is that anything like the View>Privacy Report... in the IE browser?

I think you are right... Check out fidelity(dot)com. Go to View > Privacy Report and then click summary.

On the one website I checked, it told me why/how they use cookies. It seems that it is just a way for people to put in their information about these things. Otherwise, IE will tell them that the info isn't available and that they should contact the site admin.

I think it's pretty cool. I wonder if search engines look for it... I think I'm going to do it, and list it in our Privacy Section. W3C gives you a compliance logo to display once you've completed it. Hey, why not...

I agree. Why not.

FYI...

I attempted to create one of these policies only to realize that it requires and XML file to be stored on your site. We are not allowed to use XML files with , so we can't create a P3P policy. Just wanted to let you know so you don't waste your time.

Sigh.. Two MonsterCommerce sites, we did the second on MC to avoid the learning curve of a new platform but we keep running into NO NO NO. NO - can't do RSS, NO - can't do Google Sitemaps. NO - Can't do P3P. Will MC ever begin to support these technologies?