375087 - What should I put into the Privacy Policy and EULA boxes?

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(addons.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Developer Pages, defect)

Description

[Christian Höltje]

What should be put in the Privacy Policy and EULA boxes?

It's not clear and there are no examples or documentation.

Ciao!

Comment 1

[Fred Wenzel [:wenzel]]

I can see your point, yet arguably if you don't know what to put in there you don't need these boxes. This is mainly for companies that have privacy policies as well as end user license agreements. I am not even sure if we are able/legally allowed to give you guidelines on what to put in there?

Comment 2

[Mike Shaver (:shaver emeritus)]

If you don't know what a EULA is you don't need one, indeed (though we could say that).  If your add-on transmits personal information, you need a privacy policy.  Doc/help bug if nothing else.

Comment 3

[Christian Höltje]

Yeah, more explanation would be good.

So, I took both for a spin and discovered:

1) The EULA forces you to an intermediate page to approve the EULA
   before you can download the addon.  However, I didn't see it
   prevent me from downloading the addon directly (cut and paste the
   URL and use wget or curl).  This should be described because a lot
   of lawyers won't like that you can bypass the EULA with a little
   bit of savvy or via someone giving you a link.

2) The Privacy notice creates another link to a page that shows a
   textarea with whatever you typed in.

Part of the confusion over the Privacy notice is this part of the
policy:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/pages/policy
------------->8----------cut-----------8<-----------------
Are all privacy and security concerns clearly spelled out?

This is an aspect of a clear and accurate description, but such an
important one that we feel it deserves specific mention. Many very
useful and well-written add-ons manipulate some form of user data, or
can present security hazards if misused; they are welcome on the
public portion of AMO, but they must make it very clear to users what
risks they might encounter, and what they can do to protect
themselves.
------------->8----------cut-----------8<-----------------

That gives the impression that the privacy info should be filled out.

I would put some common reasons why someone might want to fill these
in.  I would also make them smaller in size (say 2 rows) and then have
them (via JavaScript) expand to their current size on focus.  Most
developers will never need it and it gives them a false impression of
importance.

Ciao!

Comment 4

[Justin Scott [:fligtar]]

Added more details in r3063.